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Cancer prevention for working class, multiethnic populations through small businesses: the healthy directions study

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Abstract

Objective: We report demographic and social contextual characteristics of multiethnic, blue-collar workers from the baseline survey of a study conducted in 24 small businesses. We discuss ways in which we incorporated these characteristics into the design of the intervention. Methods: We used a randomized controled design, with 12 small businesses assigned to a social contextual intervention and 12 to a minimum intervention control condition. The response rates to the survey were 84% at baseline (n = 1717). Primary outcomes included reduction in red meat consumption and increase in physical activity and daily multivitamin intake. Secondary outcomes targeted reduction in smoking and occupational exposures. Results: The majority of the respondents were male (67.6%). This was an ethnically diverse sample with 24.7% representing racial/ethnic groups other than white and 43.6% of participants or their parents born outside of the US. To meet study recommendations, workers needed improvement in all behaviors measured. Participants reported a smoking rate of 25.8, 86.2% ate fewer than 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day 69.5% ate more than three servings of red meat a week, 46.8% engaged in less than 2.5h a week and 72.4% reported that they did not consume a daily multivitamin. Conclusions: Interventions that address the contextual environment in which health behaviors occur, may provide a method that researchers and practitioners can use to reduce health disparities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Community-Based Research, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, 44 Binney Street, Boston, MA, 02115, USA

    Mary K. Hunt, Elizabeth Barbeau, Lorraine Wallace, Caitlin Gutheil & Glorian Sorensen

  2. Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Amherst, MA, USA

    Anne M. Stoddard

  3. Department of Health and Social Behavior, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA

    Elizabeth Barbeau & Glorian Sorensen

  4. Department of Family Medicine, Brown School of Medicine, Providence, RI, USA

    Roberta Goldman

Authors
  1. Mary K. Hunt
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  2. Anne M. Stoddard
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  3. Elizabeth Barbeau
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  4. Roberta Goldman
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  5. Lorraine Wallace
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  6. Caitlin Gutheil
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  7. Glorian Sorensen
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Correspondence to Mary K. Hunt.

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Hunt, M.K., Stoddard, A.M., Barbeau, E. et al. Cancer prevention for working class, multiethnic populations through small businesses: the healthy directions study. Cancer Causes Control 14, 749–760 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1026327525701

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