...include evaluation monitoring tools. After the intervention has been completed is important to track what progress the intervention made towards attaining the target goals outlined by Healthy People 2010. This paper documents health behaviors related to diet, nutrition and physical activity of African Americans living in the Midwest, compares their health outcomes to the targeted Healthy People 2010 goals, and determines whether the designed intervention improved their health behaviors.

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Although life expectancy has increased in the U.S. population and among African American men and women, life expectancy for African Americans continues to lag behind Caucasians by as much as seven years (Braithwaite & Taylor, 2001). Steps should be taken to identify the lifestyle patterns of African Americans and to lead them to feel empowered to takecontrol over their health. Healthy People 2010 (HP 2010) established goals to determine whether health in the U.S. population is improving for all Americans. Before that time Healthy People 2000 established goals and had health goals for different segments of the population. In the year 2000, Healthy People 2010, the American Public Health Association (APHA) and the other governmental entities decided to focus on reducing health disparities through the common goal of improving health for all. In light of efforts to reduce health disparities, there is still much work that needs to be done. Health disparities have persisted and in many cases have worsened despite advances in medicine, advances in public health, and an increase in the overall standard of living (Braithwaite & Taylor, 2001).

There is no mystery that African Americans are disproportionately affected by chronic disease and excessive deaths from chronic diseases. For instance, hypertension rates among African Americans are four times higher than that of whites (National Center for Health Statistics, 2000). African Americans still have a higher ratio of strokes and cardiovascular disease compared to non-Hispanic whites (Braithwaite & Taylor, 2001). In addition, African Americans have a higher incidence of cancer and higher cancer mortality rates than any other racial or ethnic group. A number of intervention programs have been designed to address these health disparities By improving health and nutrition, increasing physical fitness and reducing obesity, especially among African Americans (Baranowski et al., 1990; McNabb, Quinn, & Kerver,1997; Resnicow et al., 2002; Young, Miller, Wider, Yanek, & Becker, 1998). These include church-based programs (Campbell et al., 2000; Resnicow et al., 2002) and community-based programs (Baranowski et al., 1990; Haire-Joshu et al., 2003; Paschal, Lewis, Martin, Shipp, & Simpson, 2004) designed to improve the health of African Americans. Overall, they accomplished the goals of increasing physical activity and reducing weight; however, they did not compare their outcomes to the HP 2010 guidelines to insure that progress was being made toward attaining goals set by the public health agenda.

In order for health disparities to be reduced or eliminated throughout the U.S., more interventions that target nutrition and physical activity will need to be implemented within the African American community. In addition to implementing interventions in the African American community we need studies to document health status and compare the results with goals established by HP 2010 to determine whether we are making progress toward the goals. If intervention studies are falling short of the goals, this information could be used to persuade funding entities that...

NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.



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