Culturally Optimized Messages for Latinos (WELCOME)

President and Fellows of Harvard College

Status: Completed

Conditions: Psychological; Diet Habit; Obesity; Diet, Healthy; Blood Pressure

Treatments: Behavioral: Culturally tailored healthy eating advice; Behavioral: Standard healthy eating advice

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05589740

IRB22-0828

Details and patient eligibility

About

This project aims to redesign and optimize a deep-structure culturally-tailored healthy eating program and test its effectiveness in improving dietary outcomes, anthropometric, and blood pressure among 75 diverse Latinos, compared to surface-level messages.

Full description

This project aims to redesign and optimize a deep-structure culturally-tailored healthy eating program and test its effectiveness in improving dietary outcomes, anthropometric, and blood pressure among 75 diverse Latinos, compared to surface-level messages. The WELCOME study will be based on the RE-AIM framework with improved reach, adoption, implementation, and maintenance strategies. The intervention arm is a deep-structure cultural tailored text messages for distinct Latino heritages (e.g., Caribbean and non-Caribbean) informed by mixed-methods formative research, compared to surface-level healthy eating messages based on the USDA My Plate Spanish version. The program runs for 6 months: 2-months delivery phase + 2-months reinforcement phase + 2-months maintenance phase.

Enrollment: 76 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 25 to 65 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• age 25-65 y/o
• self-reported Hispanic/Latino heritage
• able to understand and answer questions in Spanish or English
• living in Massachusetts for the past year and not planning to move in the next year
• having a cellphone with the capacity of receiving and sending text messages and giving consent for the Study to text this number as part of the intervention

Exclusion criteria

1. self-reported diagnosis of cancer, diabetes or major stomach or heart condition (e.g.: gastrointestinal cancers, coronary heart disease, previous stroke or heart attack, severe dietary allergies or restrictions)
2. planning to move Massachusetts in the next year
3. currently pregnant
4. institutionalized (i.e.: hospital, prison, etc.).

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Triple Blind

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76 participants in 2 patient groups

Intervention

Experimental group

Description:

Intervention group consisting of culturally-tailored healthy eating advice through daily text messages for 2 months (delivery phase); a subsequent reinforcement phase of 2-months to repeat the text messages; and a subsequent maintenance phase of 2-months with no text messages.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Culturally tailored healthy eating advice

Control

Active Comparator group

Description:

Control group consisting of general healthy eating advice through daily text messages for 2 months (delivery phase); a subsequent reinforcement phase of 2-months to repeat the text messages; and a subsequent maintenance phase of 2-months with no text messages.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Standard healthy eating advice