Better Me Within Trial to Improve Lifestyle Behaviors in African Americans

This study describes a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach to design a novel faith-enhancement to the diabetes prevention program (DPP) for AA women. A long-standing CBPR partnership designed the faith-enhancement from focus group data. The faith components were specifically linked to weekly DPP learning objectives to strategically emphasize behavioral skills with religious principles. Using a CBPR approach, the Better Me Within trial was able to enroll 12 churches, screen 333 AA women, and randomize 221 after collection of objective eligibility measures. A prospective, randomized, nested by church, design was used to evaluate the faith-enhanced DPP as compared to a standard DPP on weight, diabetes and cardiovascular risk, over a 16-week intervention and 10-month follow up.