Cancer prevention in rural youth: Teaching goals for health: The pilot

Background. The Goals for Health project is designed to change the cancer-r elated behaviors of tobacco use and dietary fat and fiber consumption. The intervention teaches health and life skills to rural, minority sixth and se venth graders in rural Virginia and New York. This article presents the res ults of the pilot. Methods. Participants were 129 sixth graders at one rura l middle school who were surveyed prior to and following delivery of the pi lot sixth-grade intervention, Results. Results include significant changes from pre- to post-intervention in several diet and smoking attitude and sel f-efficacy variables, dietary fat and fiber knowledge, high-fat snack consu mption, and dietary fat scores. Multivariate analyses reveal important cont ributions of personal control over food choices and family and friend influ ence on change in dietary fat score from pre- to post-intervention. Conclus ions. These pilot program results suggest avenues for dietary and cancer pr evention interventions in high-risk, rural adolescents.