The study is a randomized intervention effectiveness trial with three experimental conditions. Group 1 (Controls=C) will receive standard nutrition education materials; Group 2 will receive a multicomponent intervention (MCI=Tx1) that will include culturally sensitive written materials, audio tapes, a video, and one telephone booster cal; Group 3 will receive the same intervention as Group 2, plus three additional telephone calls (MCI+3T=Tx2). Subjects will be recruited at Health Fairs conducted Atlanta churches. There will be three data collection points; baseline, 6 month, and 1 year follow up. Baseline and 1 year follow up data (with the exception of 24hr recall that will be collected by phone) will be collected at health fairs; 6 month follow up data will be collected by phone. Conducting followup health fairs a year (rather than 6 months) after baseline will minimize seasonal variation in key outcome variables, e.g., diet, lipids, and carotenoids. Recruitment and retention of subjects will be enhanced with incentives such as raffle tickets. In addition, all Tx and C subjects will be contacted by telephone and mail to encourage attendance at the 1 year follow up health fair. A cluster randomization design will be employed. Churches rather than individuals will be assigned to condition and individuals will be nested in churches. The effect of cluster randomization is incorporated in sample size calculations and data analysis strategies. Baseline projections are 278 individuals in Tx1, 278 in Tx2, and 331 in C, to detect proposed treatment effects, accounting for attrition and intracluster correlation. It is estimated that approximately 9-15 churches, 3-5 per condition, will be required to yield the requisite number of participants at posttest. The intervention will be implemented in several partially overlapping cycles over the 2 year intervention phase.
