Cancer prevention among working class, multiethnic adults: results of the healthy directions-health centers study
Karen M Emmons, Ann M Stoddard, Robert Fletcher, Caitlin Gutheil, Elizabeth Gonzalez Suarez, Rebecca Lobb, Jane Weeks, Judy Anne Bigby, Karen M Emmons, Ann M Stoddard, Robert Fletcher, Caitlin Gutheil, Elizabeth Gonzalez Suarez, Rebecca Lobb, Jane Weeks, Judy Anne Bigby
Abstract
Objectives: We analyzed outcomes from a study that examined social-contextual factors in cancer prevention interventions for working class, multiethnic populations.
Methods: Ten community health centers were randomized to intervention or to control. Patients who resided in low-income, multiethnic neighborhoods were eligible; the intervention targeted fruit and vegetable consumption, red meat consumption, multivitamin intake, and physical activity. Outcomes were measured at 8 months.
Results: The intervention led to significant increases in fruit and vegetable consumption and multivitamin intake and reductions in red meat consumption; no change was found in physical activity levels. The intervention effect was not changed when contextual variables that may function as confounders or effect modifiers (e.g., gender, education, race/ethnicity, respondent and parents' country of birth, and poverty status) were included in the analyses.
Conclusions: The intervention led to significant improvements in health behaviors among a working class, multiethnic population, regardless of race/ ethnicity and socioeconomic status. Interventions that respond to the social context of working class individuals across racial/ethnic categories hold promise for improving cancer-related risk behaviors.
Source: PubMed