Results of ALIVE: A Faith-Based Pilot Intervention to Improve Diet Among African American Church Members

Community-engaged and community-based participatory research to promote American Heart Association Life’s Simple 7 among African American adults: A systematic review

“…Only 10 out of the 21 studies which measured changes in blood pressure achieved statistically significant blood pressure reduction. Among these studies, systolic blood pressure decreased by 8.17 mmHg on average following intervention [43,45,53,[65][66][67][68]. Physical activity and diet change were the main approaches for attaining blood pressure control.…”

“…Effective interventions varied in duration and ranged from 6 weeks to 5 years. Among these, many employed faith-based programs or recruited participants from church communities [39,40,43,52,60,63,68,72,74]. The average reduction in BMI was 2.03 kg/m 2 [40,43,45,72,75].…”

“…The average reduction in BMI was 2.03 kg/m 2 [40,43,45,72,75]. Average weight loss was 4.36 pounds [40,43,45,60,63,68,74,75]. Other studies reported percent of participants losing greater than 5% of baseline weight or a decrease in the prevalence of those who were overweight or obese [39,47,69,73].…”

“…Some curricula adapted material from specific diets, such as the DASH diet [66,82]. Among studies reporting change in fruit and vegetable consumption, there was an average increase in FV intake by 0.7 servings/day [48,50,53,68,[83][84][85][86]. In addition to group informational sessions, effective studies also employed hands-on methods such as cooking classes, demonstrations, and taste testing to promote better nutrition [46,68,83,87].…”

“…Among studies reporting change in fruit and vegetable consumption, there was an average increase in FV intake by 0.7 servings/day [48,50,53,68,[83][84][85][86]. In addition to group informational sessions, effective studies also employed hands-on methods such as cooking classes, demonstrations, and taste testing to promote better nutrition [46,68,83,87]. Policy and community changes such as improving access to farmer's markets, community gardens, and healthier options at local retailers were also effective strategies [64,88].…”