This is a randomized controlled trial involving non-diabetic residents of East Los Angeles, most of whom are low-income, mostly immigrant Mexican Americans. The family environment-focused health behavior change intervention is being carried out by extensively trained community health workers (promotores) familiar with the community in East Los Angeles. The comparison condition is a more traditional health education approach to teaching residents about practical early cancer detection strategies designed to reduce risk of death from cancer.~The hypothesis being tested is that home environment-focused health behavior change will reduce risk of arterial stiffness, an early-in-life predictor of heart disease. The community health workers will provide most of the health promotion counseling. The promotores will provide up to 16 counseling sessions to a designated adult family member without diabetes. The sessions will focus on improving the home environment in order to reduce television viewing, increase fruit and vegetable intake, decrease intake of refined carbohydrates, prompt more frequent monitoring of body weight and increase daily physical activity. The lifestyle change goals will be tailored to the families' capacity for change and will be consistent with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, especially the MyPlate.gov messages, the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet and at least 30 minutes of daily moderate physical activity.~Secondary outcomes include: aerobic fitness, fruit and vegetable intake as assessed by food frequency questionnaire, endothelial function, body mass index, waist circumference, blood pressure, a metabolic syndrome score, and quality of life. Relative to the cancer early detection condition, the lifestyle change intervention is expected to improve fitness, increase fruit and vegetable intake, improve endothelial function, improve BMI, reduce excess waist circumference, improve blood pressure, and improve quality of life.~If results confirm hypotheses, the results will support investing more public health resources into environmental and policy strategies design to make it easier for populations to adhere to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans.
This family environment-focused health behavior change intervention is being carried out by extensively trained community health workers (promotores) familiar with the community in East Los Angeles. The hypothesis being tested is that home environment-focused health behavior change will reduce risk of arterial stiffness, an early-in-life predictor of heart disease. The community health workers will provide most of the health promotion counseling. The promotores will provide up to 16 counseling sessions to a designated adult family member without diabetes. The sessions will focus on improving the home environment in order to reduce television viewing, increase fruit and vegetable intake, decrease intake of refined carbohydrates, prompt more frequent monitoring of body weight and increase daily physical activity. The lifestyle change goals will be tailored to the families' capacity for change and will be consistent with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, especially the MyPlate.gov messages, the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet and at least 30 minutes of daily moderate physical activity.