High blood cholesterol is a significant public health problem in the United States and is currently considered a national health priority. Currently, there is insufficient research on how to practically and inexpensively influence large numbers of individuals to lower their blood cholesterol levels. The broad purpose of the proposed research program is to provide both effectiveness and cost data for a spectrum of minimal contact educational interventions designed to help individuals change their behaviors to reduce their blood cholesterol levels. The interventions vary along a continuum of six intensity levels from the """"""""ethical minimum"""""""" of educational input to the maximum level of education considered practical. The three """"""""lower"""""""" levels of intervention involve written materials only which will vary from a Cholesterol Result form (CR) alone; to a dietary self assessment, Rate Your Plate (RYP) and the CR; to a multi-page self-help nutrition kit, Let's Eat with the RYP and CR. The three """"""""higher"""""""" levels of intervention will include all of the written materials and use of a compact disc audio intervention or a brief (12-minute) face-to-face counseling session with either a lay educator or nutritionist. Interventions are designed to be used and will be tested in a variety of settings including worksites, public sites, religious organizations,. and medical facilities. Short-term and longer-term changes in measured total blood cholesterol levels and self-reported changes in eating pattern and other behaviors will be studied. In addition, thorough procedures will be used for determining costs that differentiate the conditions during the experimental treatment. This will allow effectiveness outcomes to be combined with costs for meaningful conclusions regarding the practicality and utility of various approaches to minimal contact education for cholesterol-lowering in those sectors most likely to provide measurement sites. The results will also be examined for differences associated with various subject characteristics (i.e. age, gender, educational level, cholesterol level).
| Gans, Kim M; Burkholder, Gary J; Risica, Patricia M et al. (2003) Baseline fat-related dietary behaviors of white, Hispanic, and black participants in a cholesterol screening and education project in New England. J Am Diet Assoc 103:699-706; discussion 706 |
| Gans, Kim M; Burkholder, Gary J; Upegui, David I et al. (2002) Comparison of baseline fat-related eating behaviors of Puerto Rican, Dominican, Colombian, and Guatemalan participants who joined a cholesterol education project. J Nutr Educ Behav 34:202-10 |
