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Public health
Research
Long-term effectiveness of the community-based Complete Health Improvement Program (CHIP) lifestyle intervention: a cohort study
  1. Lillian Kent1,
  2. Darren Morton1,
  3. Trevor Hurlow2,
  4. Paul Rankin1,
  5. Althea Hanna3,
  6. Hans Diehl4
  1. 1Lifestyle Research Centre, Avondale College of Higher Education, Cooranbong, New South Wales, Australia
  2. 2Waratah Medical Services, Morisset, New South Wales, Australia
  3. 3Department of Health, New Zealand Pacific Union Conference, Auckland, New Zealand
  4. 4Lifestyle Medicine Institute, Loma Linda, California, USA
  1. Correspondence to Dr Lillian Kent; lillian.kent{at}avondale.edu.au

Abstract

Objective To examine the long-term (three or more years) effectiveness of the volunteer-delivered Complete Health Improvement Program (CHIP) intervention.

Design Cohort study.

Setting Hawera, New Zealand.

Participants Of the total cohort of 284 individuals who self-selected to complete the CHIP lifestyle intervention between 2007 and 2009, 106 (37% of the original cohort, mean age=64.9±7.4 years, range 42–87 years; 35% males, 65% female) returned in 2012 for a complimentary follow-up health assessment (mean follow-up duration=49.2+10.4 months).

Intervention 30-day lifestyle modification programme (diet, physical activity, substance use and stress management) delivered by volunteers in a community setting.

Main outcome measures Changes in body mass index (BMI), systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP), fasting plasma glucose (FPG), total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein (LDL), high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and triglycerides (TG).

Results After approximately 4 years, participants with elevated biometrics at programme entry maintained significantly lowered BMI (−3.2%; 34.8±5.4 vs 33.7±5.3 kg/m2, p=0.02), DBP (−9.4%; 89.1±4.1 vs 80.8±12.6 mm Hg, p=0.005), TC (−5.5%; 6.1±0.7 vs 5.8±1.0 mmol/L, p=0.04) and TG (−27.5%; 2.4±0.8 vs 1.7±0.7 mmol/L, p=0.002). SBP, HDL, LDL and FPG were not significantly different from baseline. Participants with elevated baseline biometrics who reported being compliant to the lifestyle principles promoted in the intervention (N=71, 67% of follow-up participants) recorded further reductions in BMI (−4.2%; 34.8±4.5 vs 33.4±4.8 kg/m2, p=0.02), DBP (−13.3%; 88.3±3.2 vs 77.1±12.1 mm Hg, p=0.005) and FPG (−10.4%; 7.0±1.5 vs 6.3±1.3 mmol/L, p=0.02).

Conclusions Individuals who returned for follow-up assessment and entered the CHIP lifestyle intervention with elevated risk factors were able to maintain improvements in most biometrics for more than 3 years. The results suggest that the community-based CHIP lifestyle intervention can be effective in the longer term, even when delivered by volunteers.

  • NUTRITION & DIETETICS
  • PREVENTIVE MEDICINE

This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 3.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2013-003751

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