Achieving and maintaining behavior change remains a major challenge to promoting health and caring for illness. The study was written in response to a request for proposals studying health behavior change and is part of the Behavior Change Consortium which includes 14 studies nationwide.
Fire fighters are the subjects for the proposal.
As a group, they have a concentration of the harmful behaviors and health risks afflicting the US population. They also have unique working schedules that make them ideal for both interventions. Fire fighters' health concerns and our established relationships will result in easy recruitment of stations and very high participation rates. The primary outcomes of this study are increased aerobic fitness, reduced dietary fat, increased servings of fruits and vegetables and normalized percent body fat. The study will compare two health promotion paradigms and provide an understanding of how and under what conditions behavior change can occur and be maintained.