Healthy lifestyle behaviors are essential to the management of diseases, particularly, type 2 diabetes (T2D) and hypertension (HTN) [1-4]. Epidemiological studies reveal that a healthy diet, physical activity, and other disease management skills are key factors in preventing and managing the disease [1-3, 5]. Unfortunately, African Americans (AA) do not regularly engage in these healthy behaviors and suffer the consequences of higher diabetes and cardiovascular mortality and morbidity compared to other ethnic groups [1]. African Americans residing in rural areas ofthe Southeast are especially affected because of their socio-cultural context, economic constraints, and limited health care access. As a result there is a need for community-based culturally sensitive interventions aimed at helping AA communities to engage in sustained regular implementation of the recommended health behaviors. While short-term interventions have successfully introduced healthy changes in lifestyle behaviors among African Americans (AAs), benefits associated with maintaining healthy lifestyles have yet to be demonstrated [6, 7]. For rural AAs, at least two factors currently hinder long-term success. First, community programs run for limited periods of time on limited funding. Second, most interventions have been conducted with urban populations and have failed to incorporate a critical influence for rural AAs ? the family. Treating men and women with T2D is most effective when there is a change in diet for the entire household [8, 9], but to our knowledge studies have not focused on AA family involvement in T2D dietary interventions.
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