(PO20-05-22) Number of Educational Sessions Attended Was Not Associated With Weight Loss or Blood Pressure Changes in African Americans Enrolled in Weight Matters

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Presenting Author(s)

Krista D. Sowell, PhD
– Assistant Professor, Winston Salem State University , Winston Salem, North Carolina, United States

Co-Author(s)

RB

Rochelle L. Blakeney, BS
– Graduate Student, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Charlotte, North Carolina, United States
CW

Cynthia D. Williams-Brown, Ph.D.
– Associate Professor, Winston Salem State University, Winston Salem, North Carolina, United States
KK

Kiboum Kim, Ph.D.
– Assistant Professor, Winston Salem State University, Winston Salem, North Carolina, United States
GH

Gregory D. Henderson, Ph.D.
– Associate Professor, Winston Salem State University, Winston Salem, North Carolina, United States

Disclosure(s):

Krista D. Sowell, PhD: No relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.

Objectives: Program evaluation is an important step in understanding factors that strengthen the quality of the program and improve outcomes for future interventions. Program participation, as defined by number of educational sessions attended, was investigated for its association with weight and blood pressure changes in African Americans that enrolled in Weight Matters.

Methods: Weight Matters, a community-based chronic disease intervention targeting African Americans enrolled 499 participants (88.6% female, 51.5±12.7 years, BMI: 36.7±8.0) aimed at reducing risk factors of prevalent chronic disease in African Americans. The intervention consisted of bi-weekly educational sessions focusing on health, fitness, and nutrition during an 18-week period with scheduled follow ups and post-intervention at 12 months. During these follow up study visits, data, including weight and blood pressure (BP), was collected.

Results: 57% of participants attended all educational sessions (10). ANOVA was used to compare the attendance of educational sessions by participant weight loss and BP changes. There was no significant difference in the amount of educational sessions attended in the participants that lowered their BP at post intervention compared to those that had no change or raised (F(3,219)=0.431, p=0.73). Similarly, there were no differences observed in the number of attended sessions between participants that achieved normal BP values compared to those with elevated BP or hypertension at post-intervention (F(3,298) =1.41, p=0.24) or 12-months (p=0.63). There was no difference in the number of attended sessions in participants that had ³ 5% weight loss compared to those with < 5% weight loss or gained weight at post-intervention (F(2,276)=0.187, p=0.83) or 12 months (p=0.39).

Conclusions: Findings suggest that attendance to educational sessions was not associated with changes in blood pressure or weight loss at post intervention and 12-month post. There were limitations to this study as there was a high dropout rate (40%) of participants that did not complete the program. In addition, some class sizes were determined to be too large and may have contributed to an ineffective knowledge transfer.

Funding Sources: This project was supported by funding from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) (DHHS Grant # 1102017000118).