TY - JOUR
T1 - Be Well Communities™
T2 - mobilizing communities to promote wellness and stop cancer before it starts
AU - Rechis, Ruth
AU - Oestman, Katherine B.
AU - Caballero, Elizabeth
AU - Brewster, Anna
AU - Walsh, Michael T.
AU - Basen-Engquist, Karen
AU - Gershenwald, Jeffrey E.
AU - Tektiridis, Jennifer H.
AU - Moreno, Mark
AU - Williams, Pamela A.
AU - Treiman, Katherine
AU - Garza, Priscila D.
AU - Hawk, Ernest
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, This is a U.S. government work and not under copyright protection in the U.S.; foreign copyright protection may apply.
PY - 2021/8
Y1 - 2021/8
N2 - Purpose: Increasingly, cancer centers are delivering population-based approaches to narrow the gap between known cancer prevention strategies and their effective implementation. Leveraging successful healthy community initiatives, MD Anderson developed Be Well Communities™, a model that implements evidence-based actions to directly impact people’s lives. Methods: In partnership with local organizations, MD Anderson’s Be Well Communities team executed and evaluated 16 evidence-based interventions to address community priorities in healthy diets, physical activity, and sun safety. Evaluation included assessing the effectiveness of evidence-based interventions, stakeholders’ perceptions of collaboration, and the population-level impact on dietary and physical activity behaviors among students using the School Physical Activity and Nutrition Survey and the System for Observing Fitness Instruction Time. Two-tailed t-tests were used to compare tested parameters at baseline and follow-up. p values less than.05 were considered significant. Results: This model achieved its early outcomes, including effectively implementing evidence-based interventions, building strong partnerships, increasing access to healthy foods, improving the built environment, and increasing healthy food and water consumption and moderate to vigorous physical activity among students (p <.001). Conclusions: Be Well Communities is an effective model for positively impacting community health which could be leveraged by others to deliver evidence-based actions to improve population health.
AB - Purpose: Increasingly, cancer centers are delivering population-based approaches to narrow the gap between known cancer prevention strategies and their effective implementation. Leveraging successful healthy community initiatives, MD Anderson developed Be Well Communities™, a model that implements evidence-based actions to directly impact people’s lives. Methods: In partnership with local organizations, MD Anderson’s Be Well Communities team executed and evaluated 16 evidence-based interventions to address community priorities in healthy diets, physical activity, and sun safety. Evaluation included assessing the effectiveness of evidence-based interventions, stakeholders’ perceptions of collaboration, and the population-level impact on dietary and physical activity behaviors among students using the School Physical Activity and Nutrition Survey and the System for Observing Fitness Instruction Time. Two-tailed t-tests were used to compare tested parameters at baseline and follow-up. p values less than.05 were considered significant. Results: This model achieved its early outcomes, including effectively implementing evidence-based interventions, building strong partnerships, increasing access to healthy foods, improving the built environment, and increasing healthy food and water consumption and moderate to vigorous physical activity among students (p <.001). Conclusions: Be Well Communities is an effective model for positively impacting community health which could be leveraged by others to deliver evidence-based actions to improve population health.
KW - Cancer prevention
KW - Community outreach and engagement
KW - Implementation science
KW - Population health
KW - Risk reduction behavior
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85106457366&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85106457366&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s10552-021-01439-9
DO - 10.1007/s10552-021-01439-9
M3 - Article
C2 - 34037915
AN - SCOPUS:85106457366
SN - 0957-5243
VL - 32
SP - 859
EP - 870
JO - Cancer Causes and Control
JF - Cancer Causes and Control
IS - 8
ER -