Flying Sparks

University of Alabama at Birmingham: Center for the Study of Community Health

Topics:
Diabetes | Nutrition & Physical Activity for Adults | Tobacco Prevention & Control

Project collaborators are conducting Flying Sparks to reduce the risk for diabetes, cancer, and heart disease among residents of Alabama’s Black Belt—a low-income, medically underserved, rural area of west Alabama. Two-thirds of the area’s residents are African American and at considerable risk for these chronic conditions. The intervention builds on the center’s prior research which showed how effective community health advisors (CHAs) are at implementing risk-reduction programs for residents in rural Alabama (see Reducing the Risk of Heart Disease and Cancer Among African-American Women).

Center staff trained community health coordinators in 20 communities and gave them structured guides and community health tool boxes, developed by center staff and their community partners. The tool boxes contain materials, activities, and step-by-step instructions for recruiting CHAs and teaching them to promote physical activity, healthy eating, smoking cessation, and health screenings. Trained facilitators and CHAs in four communities are working directly with center staff on all aspects of the program. The other 16 coordinators are conducting the intervention without direct support, although they can e-mail or call the staff for guidance as needed. A total of 1,600 adult residents are taking part in the CHA-led interventions.

Researchers will determine how much center staff involvement is needed for communities to implement the interventions effectively. The community factors associated with initiating and maintaining successful health promotion programs in rural Alabama and with increasing the communities’ capacity to address their own health issues will also be identified.

Read story of prevention research for this project.

 

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