Partnerships between substance abuse researchers and practitioners are being encouraged by numerous initiatives developed in response to a 1998 Institute of Medicine Report (IOM, 1998). The need for the initiatives is clear; however, the structure of the partnerships and how each partner can benefit from them is less clear. There is evidence that each group appreciates the principle of moving research and practice closer together. It is less clear what each group wants from the partnership and what each group can contribute to it. Researchers want to conduct well-controlled studies, with access to clinical populations and adequate control over the study environment to ensure rigorous protocol compliance. Practitioners should be compensated for the time they spend on these projects, and they want to address questions that are of importance to their clinical populations and stay current with new knowledge and technology. No matter how interesting and important these efforts are, unless each group derives adequate and fairly shared benefits, the partnerships will flounder.
Purpose: To implement a multilevel, church-based intervention with diverse disparity populations using community-based participatory research and evaluate feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effectiveness in improving obesity-related outcomes. Design: Cluster randomized controlled trial (pilot). Setting: Two midsized (∼200 adults) African American baptist and 2 very large (∼2000) Latino Catholic churches in South Los Angeles, California. Participants: Adult (18+ years) congregants (n = 268 enrolled at baseline, ranging from 45 to 99 per church). Intervention: Various components were implemented over 5 months and included 2 sermons by pastor, educational handouts, church vegetable and fruit gardens, cooking and nutrition classes, daily mobile messaging, community mapping of food and physical activity environments, and identification of congregational policy changes to increase healthy meals. Measures: Outcomes included objectively measured body weight, body mass index (BMI), and systolic and diastolic blood pressure (BP), plus self-reported overall healthiness of diet and usual minutes spent in physical activity each week; control variables include sex, age, race–ethnicity, English proficiency, education, household income, and (for physical activity outcome) self-reported health status. Analysis: Multivariate linear regression models estimated the average effect size of the intervention, controlling for pair fixed effects, a main effect of the intervention, and baseline values of the outcomes. Results: Among those completing follow-up (68%), the intervention resulted in statistically significantly less weight gain and greater weight loss (−0.05 effect sizes; 95% confidence interval [CI] = −0.06 to −0.04), lower BMI (−0.08; 95% CI = −0.11 to −0.05), and healthier diet (−0.09; 95% CI = −0.17 to −0.00). There was no evidence of an intervention impact on BP or physical activity minutes per week. Conclusion: Implementing a multilevel intervention across diverse congregations resulted in small improvements in obesity outcomes. A longer time line is needed to fully implement and assess effects of community and congregation environmental strategies and to allow for potential larger impacts of the intervention.
