Improving Health Habits in Impoverished Populations

Poor diet, physical inactivity, and sedentary behaviors among low-income, minority populations have been linked to greater risk of chronic health conditions such as overweight/obesity, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes. Low-income clinics that serve these populations often represent an untapped opportunity for health promotion in impoverished individuals. Few studies have examined the feasibility of using brief physician advice and multi-level, clinic-based interventions to change poor dietary habits, physical inactivity, and sedentary lifestyle behaviors among these culturally diverse populations that comprise the clinic population. This exploratory project proposes to address this scientific gap by introducing and piloting a Self-Care Stimulating Disease Prevention Program (SCSDPP) to address poor dietary habits, physical inactivity, and sedentary lifestyle behaviors among low income, uninsured patient populations (primarily Latinos) served by the community clinics of the Venice Family Clinic (VFC) health center in Los Angeles County. The program will include the development of 1) a simple-to-use patient Health Priority Assessment (HPA) tool designed to assess patient preferences for behavior change; 2) a standard protocol for physicians to provide brief health advice using motivation interviewing (< 2 minutes per visit); 3) a protocol for distributing self-help aids for patient use (e.g., pedometer, exercise videos); and 4) a series of monthly follow-up counseling sessions by lay health educators (e.g., promotores) to help patients address their lifestyle change priorities over time. We will conduct a randomized controlled pilot of the SCSDPP in approximately 100 patient cases at two community health clinics within the VFC health center system. The pilot will utilize precise outcome measures, including commonly-accepted biomarkers (e.g., HgbA1c, fasting blood glucose) and psychometrically-validated measures of process and health status, to accurately assess the magnitude of changes in diet and physical activity among patients over a 12-month observation period. The feasibility of integrating the SCSDPP into the community health clinic setting will be evaluated, and is the primary aim of this project. The results will inform efforts to plan a larger, successor study. Relevance to Public Health: this study evaluates a clinic-based brief intervention to help prevent overweight/obesity, a public health problem that has been linked to the development of the metabolic syndrome and other precursors of diabetes.