Promoting Policy and Environmental Change in Faith-Based Organizations: Description and Findings From a Mini-Grants Program.

PURPOSE: The Emory Prevention Research Center's Cancer Prevention and Control Research Network mini-grant program funded faith-based organizations to implement policy and environmental change to promote healthy eating and physical activity in rural South Georgia. This study describes the existing health promotion environment and its relationship to church member behavior. DESIGN: Cross-sectional. SETTING: Data were obtained from parishioners of six churches in predominantly rural South Georgia. SUBJECTS: Participants were 319 church members with average age of 48 years, of whom 80% were female and 84% were black/African-American. MEASURES: Questionnaires assessed perceptions of the existing church health promotion environment relative to nutrition and physical activity, eating behavior and intention to use physical activity facilities at church, and eating and physical activity behaviors outside of church. ANALYSIS: Multiple regression and ordinal logistic regression using generalized estimating equations were used to account for clustered data. RESULTS: Results indicate that delivering messages via sermons and church bulletins, having healthy eating programs, and serving healthy foods are associated with participants' self-reported consumption of healthy foods at church (all p values ≤ .001). Serving more healthy food and less unhealthy food was associated with healthier eating in general but not to physical activity in general (p values ≤ .001). CONCLUSION: The church environment may play an important role in supporting healthy eating in this setting and more generally.

Promoting Policy and Environmental Change in Faith-Based Organizations: Outcome Evaluation of a Mini-Grants Program.

High rates of heart disease, cancer, and stroke exist in rural South Georgia where the Emory Prevention Research Center's Cancer Prevention and Control Research Network provided mini-grant funding to six churches to implement policy and environmental change to promote healthy eating and physical activity. This study sought to determine whether perceptions of the health promotion environment changed over time and whether perceived environmental change was associated with healthy behavior at church and in general. This study used a single-group pre-post design with 1-year follow-up. Parishioners (N = 258) completed self-administered questionnaires assessing perceptions of the church health promotion environment relative to healthy eating and physical activity, eating behavior and intention to use physical activity facilities at church, and eating and physical activity behaviors generally. Results indicate that perceived improvements in church nutrition environments were most strongly associated with decreases in unhealthy food consumed and stronger intentions to use physical activity resources at church (ps ≤ .05). Perceived changes in the physical activity environment were unrelated to church or general behavior. Findings suggest that church environments may play an important role in supporting healthy eating and physical activity at church; however, whether the influence of the church environment extends to other settings is unknown.