Enhanced Visibility, Engagement, and Reach of Lifestyle Change Interventions Project (EVER-LCI) and LCIRN Coordinating Center

PROJECT SUMMARY This project aims to improve the health of all people living in rural communities throughout the United States by improving the reach and engagement of evidence-based lifestyle change interventions (EB-LCIs). Component A focuses on developing and evaluating novel marketing strategies to improve perceptions of EB-LCI feasibility and motivation among rural populations. The activities within Component A include a landscape analysis to identify innovative LCI approaches, discrete choice experiments to determine the best program features to market to rural audiences, and a randomized controlled trial testing the use of bi-directional text messaging to test optimized strategies to improve enrollment in EB-LCIs. The project will leverage the Mountain West Family Healthy Weight Collaborative (MW-FHWC) and the CDC Prevention Research Center Network to engage community members and organizations across diverse rural regions in the U.S. Component B establishes the Lifestyle Change Implementation Research Network Coordinating Center (LCIRN-CC) to support and coordinate the dissemination and implementation of EB-LCIs. The LCIRN-CC will leverage leading-edge dissemination and implementation (D&I) science methods, community-engaged research processes, and will leverage and innovate on the Mountain States Partnership for Community-Engaged Dissemination & Implementation (MS-CEDI) Science Training Institute to include an implementation practitioner training track in addition to the effective implementation researcher training track the institute developed and evaluated over the last four years. The center will facilitate communication and collaboration across the Network, support sustainable communities of practice, and build capacity for the next generation of EB-LCI D&I practitioners and scientists. Additionally, the LCIRN-CC will provide technical assistance, mentorship, and resources to ensure the successful implementation and sustainability of EB-LCIs across the Network. The ultimate goal of Component A is to improve the reach and overall health of Americans living in rural areas. For Component B, the ultimate goal is to contribute to generalizable implementation strategies and frameworks for EB-LCIs and build researcher and practitioner capacity to contribute to sustainable improvements in population health.