News Release

Individually tailored health promotions can help working women, research shows

Peer-Reviewed Publication

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

CHAPEL HILL -- Individually tailored health promotion programs can help working women adopt healthier lifestyles, an unusual new University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill study has found.

Women holding blue-collar manufacturing jobs in eastern North Carolina who participated in a UNC-designed program boosted their fruit and vegetable consumption when compared with control subjects, said Dr. Marci K. Campbell, associate professor of nutrition at the UNC schools of public health and medicine.

“We also observed significant differences in fat intake at six months,” Campbell said. “Women in the intervention group also demonstrated improvements in strength and flexibility exercise.”

Rates of smoking cessation and cancer screening did not differ between the two study groups, however, she said.

“Overall, we are excited about the results and believe our model program could be adopted by comparable industries across the country in a way that would benefit both workers and businesses,” the scientist said.

A report on the project and study appears in the March issue of Preventive Health, a professional journal.

Besides Campbell, UNC authors are Dr. Brenda DeVellis, professor of health behavior and health education; health educator Salli Benedict; Dr. Kristine Kelsey, research assistant professor of nutrition; and research associate Leigh Belton. Drs. Irene Tessaro of West Virginia University and Antonio Sanhuenza of the University of the Frontier in Chile also participated.

The study assessed the effectiveness of the Health Works for Women intervention project in changing attitudes about health promotion and behaviors, Campbell said. The evaluation took place at nine small to medium-sized factories in seven eastern N.C. counties: Person, Vance, Granville, Lenoir, Bladen, Sampson and Duplin.

“Since 1993, we have been working in blue-collar industries in eastern North Carolina that chiefly employ women, trying to figure out the best ways to encourage healthy eating, physical activity and other health behaviors to reduce illness and premature death,” Campbell said. “The challenge has been to come up with methods that are compatible with the workplace.”

Such industries usually will not let women off the production line to participate in traditional health promotion classes, she said. Nor do they have cafeterias, fitness centers or other amenities typically offered by large corporate health promotion programs.

To test a different approach, the UNC team developed individualized, computer-generated magazines in which women twice received confidential feedback based on surveys they completed about their smoking, eating, exercising and other behaviors. The team also established lay health advisory programs at each site, which involved training women who volunteered to share health information with co-workers.

“We covered such important issues as healthy eating, weight control, physical activity, cancer screening and even stress management, which the women said they wanted to work on,” Campbell said. “After doing this combined intervention, we followed the original survey with two more surveys at six months and again at 18 months to see if anything had changed.”

Of women originally in the group, 538 completed all three, she said. Results were encouraging.

“Our women increased fruit and vegetable consumption, decreased fat consumption and improved their strength and flexibility exercises markedly,” the nutrition expert said. “Fruit and vegetable consumption, for example, grew by three quarters of a serving a day, which was significant.

“We also saw an increase in walking and aerobic exercise but that was not statistically significant,” Campbell said. “We appeared to have little impact on smoking, which was too bad since smoking is the leading cause of cancer and contributes to many other illnesses among Americans.”

The UNC scientists have expanded their research to capitalize on community and organizational participation and have adapted the program for Latina women, she said. Researchers and health educators believe their model program could benefit working women in factories and related industries across the country because of its flexibility. With sufficient funding and possibly volunteers as well, such programs could easily be adopted by county health departments, businesses or community coalitions.

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The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention supported the study through grants to UNC’s Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention.

Note: Campbell can be reached at 919-966-7230.
News Services contact: David Williamson, 919-962-8596


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