Health Education Research Advance Access published online on April 1, 2009
Health Education Research, doi:10.1093/her/cyp022
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Secretos de la Buena Vida: processes of dietary change via a tailored nutrition communication intervention for Latinas
1 Graduate School of Public Health, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92115, USA
2 Center for Behavioral and Community Health Studies, San Diego State University Research Foundation, San Diego, CA 92123, USA
3 Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology, San Diego State University–University of California at San Diego, San Diego, CA 92115, USA
Correspondence to: * Correspondence to: B. Baquero. E-mail: bbaquero{at}projects.sdsu.edu
Secretos de la Buena Vida was a successful tailored nutrition communication intervention delivered to Latinas living along the US–Mexico border in California. The intervention was delivered over a 14-week period and consisted of three intervention conditions: weekly home visits with promotoras + weekly tailored mailed newsletters in the first condition, weekly tailored mailed newsletters in the second condition and targeted materials in the attention control condition. The current study examined what elements of the promotora + tailored newsletter and tailored newsletter-only conditions were most effective for behavioral adoption and maintenance in a sample of 238 Latina women. Process evaluation measures assessed the implementation, fidelity and dose of these two intervention conditions. Results indicate that there was high fidelity to program implementation and delivery. Perceived effort, perceived support and intervention length predicted adoption of a lower fat diet at the 15-month follow-up. In the promotora + tailored newsletter condition, married women were four times more likely to be adopters of dietary fat changes than single women. These findings highlight the importance of process evaluation measures and help us understand the mechanism by which tailored print materials and interpersonal health communication via promotoras can facilitate health behavior change.
Received on June 20, 2008; accepted on February 27, 2009