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Cancer Control Research

Abstract

The proposed study combines innovative and traditional methods for promoting healthy diets among Latinos. The first phase of the study will employ focus groups, depth interviews and participant observations to develop and test concepts, message framing, and personalization strategies. Results from the first phase will be incorporated into the interventions designed for the second phase of the study. This phase will recruit 351 Spanish-dominant Latino women in San Diego area to participate in a 12-week nutritional health promotion intervention. Women will be randomly assigned to one of three groups: promotora/personalized material condition personalized/distance learning condition; and the usual care condition. In the first condition, participants will receive 12 weekly home visits by trained promotoras who will implement the intervention face-to-face via contingency contracting and personalized print pieces. In the second condition, participants will receive the same 12 weekly personalized print piece, but no home visits from a promotora. Participants in the third condition will receive 12 weekly :off the shelf" print pieces considered high- quality and language-appropriate. This longitudinal research study will include 4 repeated assessments over a 15-month period. The primary outcome variables for this study are percent calories from dietary fat and number of grams of dietary fiber. Measures will be collected by trained bilingual/bicultural measurement technicians at baseline, immediately following the 12-weeks of intervention. Aggresive cohort maintenance strategies (used extensively in the past by our research team) and incentives are expected to help retain 85% of the study group over time.