Community intervention helps improve diet patterns, wellbeing of women

A cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk reduction intervention, the Strong Hearts, Healthy Communities 2.0 (SHHC-2.0), may be useful among midlife and older female adults of rural communities in improving their diet patterns and diet-related psychosocial wellbeing consistent with improved cardiovascular health, according to a study.

This randomized controlled trial was conducted in rural, medically underserved communities and included female adults aged ≥40 years who were obese or both overweight and sedentary. Communities were randomly assigned to SHHC-2.0 intervention (n=5 communities; n=87 participants) or control (with delayed intervention; n=6 communities; n=95 participants).

SHHC-2.0 involved 24 weeks of twice-weekly experiential nutrition education and group-based physical activity classes facilitated by local health educators. The investigators used linear mixed-effects multilevel models to analyse changes between baseline and 24-week dietary intake (24-h recalls), dietary behaviours (eg, Rapid eating Assessment for Participants-Short Version [REAP-S] score), and diet-related psychosocial measures (eg, Three Factor Eating questionnaire) between groups.

Participants from the five intervention communities consumed fewer calories (mean difference [MD], ‒211 kcal, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], ‒412 to ‒110; p=0.039), improved overall dietary patterns measured by REAP-S scores (MD, 3.9, 95 percent CI, 2.26‒5.6; p<0.001), and improved psychosocial measures (healthy eating attitudes, uncontrolled eating, cognitive restraint, and emotional eating) relative to controls at week 24.

“CVD prevalence has disproportionately risen among midlife and older female adults of rural communities, partly due to poor diet and diet-related behaviours and psychosocial factors that impede healthy eating,” the investigators said.