Can community organization strategies be used to implement smoking and dietary changes in a rural manufacturing work site?

A one-year intervention project was developed and implemented to demonstrat e the utility of using community organization methods to mobilize a rural, predominantly minority work site community toward smoking and dietary chang e. This intervention for smoking and dietary change was conducted in a rura l work site (n=235 at baseline) and guided by employees. It involved activi ties to change the work site environment and the behaviors of individuals. A community advisory board (n=15) made up of members of the work site was e stablished, and it met monthly with members from the research team to desig n and implement nine cancer prevention activities that were targeted to the needs of this community. Activities and information were disseminated to t he employees during a nine-month period. Surveys were administered prior to and following the delivery of the intervention This project was successful in engaging a rural manufacturing work site community in thinking about ca ncer prevention strategies. Results of this intervention demonstrated signi ficant increases in numbers of smoking cessation attempts, reported fruit a nd vegetable consumption, self-efficacy for dietary change and perceived ri sk for cancer. Work site social norms changed as evidenced by employee perc eptions of co-worker support of dietary and smoking change (all ts>1.95, al l Ps<0.05). Other results with marginal statistical significance (P<.015) b ut potentially useful for future studies include increased intentions to re duce the fat in the diet. In light of the low-intensity and time-limited na ture of this community organization intervention, the observed changes in d ietary and smoking behaviors are encouraging and support the use of these s trategies in rural, culturally diverse work sites.