Chickasaw Healthy Eating Environments Research Study

This study is guided by the principles of community‐based participatory research (CBPR). Aims and Methods: Co‐led by an AI (Choctaw) Investigator, the study will: Aim #1: Evaluate CHEERS' ability to improve healthy food access by collecting quantitative data on changes in perceived ability to purchase and prepare healthy food, and by using qualitative methods to evaluate the reach, saturation, and acceptability of the CHEERS intervention. Aim #2: Measure the intervention's effect on change in BP and secondary outcomes among hypertensive community members with poorly controlled hypertension. Aim #3:Disseminate a multimedia documentary of the study's findings and evaluate the documentary's effect on tribal leaders across the Chickasaw Nation and other tribal communities. Innovation: This study will evaluate the effects of a multilevel, tribally‐run, food environment intervention. The study will also be one of the few food environment interventions ever implemented in an AI community, and the first to objectively measure its effects on BP and BMI. Significance and Impact: Study findings, including a health economics assessment, will be used to encourage policies for further expansion of the Packed Promise for a Healthy Heart Program; and policies promoting expansion of brick and mortar grocery outlets in rural Chickasaw communities.