A COMMUNITY-BASED PARTICIPATORY RESEARCH APPROACH FOR WEIGHT MANAGEMENT AMONG DISADVANTAGED YOUNG ADULTS

An 8-phase model to plan health programs was used to develop, implement, and evaluate a weight management intervention for disadvantaged young adults attending two job training programs. The model was a community-based participatory approach to increase the likelihood that the intervention would be relevant to the young adults with the capacity to be maintained after the research project. The four planning phases were carried out at the job training program, which was to be the intervention site, over a two year period with involvement by both young adults and staff. A steering committee, composed of researchers, stakeholders, and the job training site young adults and staff, was the decision-making body. The other phases of implementation and evaluation were completed with165 young adults, 18-24 years of age, over a 22-week period. There were 79 at the control site and 89 at the intervention site. At the intervention site, young adults participated in 10 weekly classroom sessions of online educational modules designed to encourage healthful habits—eating, physical activity, stress reduction and time management—and goal setting to change behavior. During the entire 22 weeks, young adults received weekly prompts, in the form of written notes left at their residential housing, to support changes in fruit and vegetable intake, physical activity, and stress management. Assessments—conducted at the beginning, at 10 weeks, and at 22 weeks—were physical measurements and surveys on eating and physical activity and satisfaction with life. Based on analyses conducted, at the beginning of the study, males were overweight and the females were obese. They reported high fruit and vegetable intake (>5 cups/day) and physical activity (>30 minutes daily) and most of them (75%) reported being satisfied with their life. The intervention group viewed an average of 6 of the 10 modules and set an average of 3 goals. At 10 weeks, those who spent more time on the modules were better at food self-regulation than the control group. This project was supported by National Research Initiative Grant 2009-55215-05460 from the USDA National Institute for Food and Agriculture.