The National Institutes of Health recently awarded the University of Missouri-Kansas City $4 million to focus on food insecurity, physical activity and diabetes with African American churches in socially vulnerable Kansas City areas. The principal investigators are Jenifer Allsworth, Ph.D., and Jannette Berkley-Patton, Ph.D., both of the School of Medicine.
Using the grant money, Allsworth and Berkley-Patton will partner with 12 to 16 community churches over the next five years to conduct . The programs focus on losing 5% to 7% of body weight through healthy eating, increased physical activity and community resources to cut the risk for type 2 diabetes in half.
Historically, diabetes prevention programs have been less effective in African American populations, so that’s why Allsworth and Berkley-Patton’s work focuses on partnering with churches to reach these communities.
“There's a lot of benefits to delivering interventions in churches,” Allsworth said. “You've got trusted people. Having an engaged pastor is incredibly important. People really listen. They adhere to what they have to say and are just much more receptive.”
Additionally, working within churches increases success rates for participants because of the already established community.
“The participants are either from that congregation or go to that church for specific services, so they have stronger senses of community within the course, which helps,” Allsworth said. “You know, if your friend Mary is like, ‘Where were you last night?’ They've got that sort of accountability. And then I think it makes it more fun. It’s not just a class; it’s connecting with a friend.”
This is not the first time Allsworth and Berkley-Patton have partnered on this work. They’ve been collaborating on diabetes prevention programs and other health initiatives for several years through 91黑料网 Community Health Research Group, and this will be their fifth National Institutes of Health clinical study together.
Allsworth and Berkley-Patton plan to use this grant to run a diabetes prevention program like they’ve done in other studies, but this time they are interested in addressing food access issues as well as bringing culturally tailored physical activity to the group.
“We've been doing diabetes prevention now for over a decade,” Berkley-Patton said. “We got our first grant that allowed us to focus on diabetes based on what our faith community said was the priority, and we just keep iterating.”
As the founding director of the Community Health Research Group, which started in 2008, Berkley-Patton has had a long history of doing church-based interventions, oftentimes guided by initiatives identified by KC Faith Community Action Board, a group consisting of around 25 church leaders, health professionals and community members interested in health.
“Jannette would chat with KC Faith, and the marching orders always come from the community and these representatives,” Allsworth said. “I think that's one of the reasons why things have been so well-received and we've been in a position to establish trust. This isn't us thinking of ideas to bring to the community. It's really the community saying, ‘this is what's important to us.’”
According to the , in the United States, more than two in five adults have prediabetes, which can develop into type 2 diabetes within five years. As the seventh leading cause of death in the United States and a disease linked to an increased risk of heart attack, stroke, blindness and kidney failure, it’s no surprise the Community Action Board has urged Allsworth and Berkley-Patton to help with diabetes prevention.
“When you talk to our pastors, they say, ‘I'm so tired of going to funerals where people have been living with diabetes for the longest time, living with heart disease or hooked up to dialysis, and then they pass away, and then we go back to the church and we eat the same food that put them there in the first place,’” Berkley-Patton said.
The grant’s study will have two arms: one providing standard diabetes-prevention education and resources tailored for their church populations, and another providing an enhanced diabetes-prevention program, which will include exercise classes and food delivery to participants on the spot.
“So you come to class, you get education, you get a bag of healthy perishables, you have an opportunity for a Zumba or other fun exercise class for 30 to 40 minutes, and then you go about your way,” Allsworth said. “What we're testing to see is if promoting those resources are going to improve people's success with both weight loss and also food security.”
Allsworth and Berkley-Patton have found that usually 40% of their participants are “definitely” to “somewhat definitely” food insecure, which is double the national average. Compounding the issue in these communities is both the stigma associated with accepting food assistance and the unhealthy options sometimes provided. That’s why they will be partnering with University Health’s Healthy Harvest Mobile Mart food delivery service to provide fresh food to the churches randomly selected for the enhanced diabetes-prevention program.
“One of the challenges with food pantries is a ton of the food is super unhealthy,” Allsworth said. “Food pantries are amazing, but they tend to have a predominance of shelf-stable foods. There’s a lot of carbs, refined sugars. It's super unhealthy, and it's particularly unhealthy for people that are trying to prevent diabetes.”
In addition to healthy eating, the study will also include culturally relevant activity classes to make movement feel fun, social and familiar.
“We’re going to do 30 minutes of fun stuff like Zumba or line dancing, which is huge in the Black community,” Berkley-Patton said. “You really can’t go to a wedding without knowing how to do the boot stomp or the wobble. So to be able to bring all of those kind of dance forms into the church, I think it's going to be another really cool thing.”
Now that the grant has been awarded, Allsworth and Berkley-Patton plan to start the trials right after the holidays, in January 2027, when people are ready to accomplish a New Year’s resolution or turn over a new leaf. In the meantime, they’ll be using their time to promote the study, hold interest meetings, and interview, select and train participating churches.
Once they start their trials, each church will host the programs for about one year, holding educational classes once a week for the first six months and once or twice a month for the remaining months. Impact data will be tracked via a variety of methods, including questionnaires, health measurements, healthy eating interviews, Wi-Fi-enabled scales and fitness trackers.
Allsworth and Berkley-Patton look forward to the start of this new grant-funded study, but more importantly, they are energized by the impact this will have on the community.
“If you can change somebody's lifestyle to move more, eat more healthily, lose a small percentage of weight, then we really could make a dent,” Allsworth said. “Each one of these studies tries to build infrastructure and change the environment in Kansas City.”