Attaining NCI's Year 2000 goals will require changes in the climate of attitudes concerning eating behavior within the community and its major organizations. This project is designed to test the hypothesis that already existing voluntary organization, local churches, can by utilized as behavior change vehicles in modification of food consumption Patterns. The project examines the role of diffusion of changes in the social environment within and beyond the groups given the intervention. Leaders and early adopters will strive as role models for those less ready for change. The local ownership focus allows volunteer leaders to shape and carry out the program in accordance with the needs and interests of each group. Staff will train leaders to apply cognitive and behavioral techniques found useful in promoting and maintaining behavior change and will provide them with information materials for distribution. Experimental and control churches (that either do or do not receive the intervention) will be compared in a matched pairs design using a variety of dependent measures. With the church as the unit of analysis, a variety of outcomes will be assessed including organizational activities. Food-related social customs, and changes in individuals through the use of: indexes of participants' nutritional knowledge, attitudes and beliefs, self-reports of eating patterns, weight, height, and cholesterol level measurements, as well as behavioral observations. The change process in the experimental units will be investigated through ongoing leader logs. Diffusion of information within and beyond the group will be measured.
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