The faith, activity, and nutrition (FAN) program: design of a participatory research intervention to increase physical activity and improve dietary habits in African American churches.

Background: African Americans are at increased risk for cardiovascular disease and cancer morbidity and mortality. Physical activity and healthy dietary practices can reduce this risk. The church is a promising setting to address health disparities, and community-based participatory research is a preferred approach.

Increasing physical activity among church members: community-based participatory research.

Background: Faith-based interventions using a community-based participatory approach hold promise for eliminating ethnic health disparities. This study evaluated the effects of a volunteer-led statewide program to increase physical activity among members of African-American churches.

Methods: African Methodist Episcopal churches within six regions (Conferences) were randomly assigned to receive training in the program immediately or 1 year later.

The health-e-AME faith-based physical activity initiative: Description and baseline findings.

This article provides an overview of the development, implementation, and baseline findings from a statewide faith-based physical activity (PA) initiative. The 3-year program is training African Methodist Episcopal volunteers across South Carolina to implement programs to increase PA in their congregations. To date, 98 churches have been trained.