Motivational Encouragement With Networks (MEN) for Healthy Eating Activity Resting Together (HEART) Health Study

Health coaching helps patients gain the knowledge, skills, tools and confidence to become active participants in their care so that they can reach self-identified health goals. Health coaching: 1) provides self-management support, 2) bridges gaps between health professionals and patients, 3) helps patients navigate the health care system, 4) offers emotional support, and 5) serves as a continuity figure. The intervention will consist of tailored health coaching, goal setting, and behavioral contracting for healthy actions to create a supportive context for participants that supports health promoting behaviors (HPBs), with efforts to enhance HPB reinforcement through established networks. After baseline assessment, the men will participate in a 45-minute educational meeting with the principal investigator (PI) to discuss self-reported measures from baseline instruments and the importance of health promoting behaviors (HPBs) to overall heart health. Afterwards, a research study team (research trained undergraduate and graduate student assistants) will perform case management and health advisement (bi-weekly continuity phone calls 2x / month) to support protocol adherence and tracking of participant goals over a period of 120 days. The research team will be guided by a coaching manual created for the purposes of the study. The M for H study will also create and provide health-oriented emails (2x / week), daily tracking text messaging on weekdays, monthly face-to-face coaching group meetings during community-based organization (CBO) set times (i.e. meetings, events), and access to an optional social media platform supporting peer interactions. After 120 days, participants will be reassessed to determine impacts related physical activity (PA) measures, knowledge, attitudes, & practices (KAPs), and interviewed to discuss M for H feasibility and acceptability. The targeted outcome for the 120 day period will be improvement toward the performance of >150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity accumulated as indicated by accelerometry, increase in distance walked during a six (6) minute walk test, and improvement in theoretical construct measures indicative of performance of HPBs among participants.

Inclusion criteria

Participants will be eligible if they are African American (AA) men:

• 45 - 75 years of age at initial enrollment in the study
• Overweight (BMI 25 - 29.99)
• Obese (BMI 30 - 44.99)
• Sufficiently inactive (i.e. self-report accumulating <90 minutes/week of moderate or vigorous physical activity)
• Categorized as low or moderate risk in accordance with American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) guidelines for pre-exercise screening

Exclusion criteria

• Younger than 45 years
• Not able to speak or read English
• Life expectancy of less than 1 year
• Categorization of high risk in accordance with ACSM guidelines
• Identified by one's primary care clinician as unable to follow instructions because of physical or cognitive disability
• Psychiatric illness
• Other unidentified reasons as determined by the investigators