ISU Families Extension program recognized for outstanding impact on women's health

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The Iowa State Families Extension staff is helping to stem the tide of heart disease in women – and receiving national recognition for its efforts.

 

Ruth Litchfield, an assistant professor in food science and human nutrition, is leading the Families Extension staff in the implementation of the Well-Integrated Screening and Evaluation for Women Across the Nation (WISEWOMAN) program’s Iowa branch.

 

WISEWOMAN is a national Centers for Disease Control outreach program focused on lowering the risk of cardiovascular disease for low-income, under- and uninsured women aged 40 to 64. Initiated in 2000, the program has since expanded to reach women in 14 states.

 

“Heart disease is still the number one killer in this country,” Litchfield said. “[But] there are some lifestyle factors that women can change to significantly decrease their risk.”

 

The Iowa State Families Extension staff’s efforts in reducing this risk have been rewarded with the Jeanne M. Priester Award, which a team member accepted at an April 9 ceremony. The award, presented each year by the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service, recognizes outreach programs that positively impact people’s health through education.

 

“It’s nice after five years in the trenches,” Litchfield said of the award. “It’s nice [to say], ‘Oh, we were doing something right!’”

 

The team’s project is also one of just five WISEWOMAN programs recently recommended for widespread dissemination and replication by the Center of Excellence for Training and Research Translation.

 

Iowa’s WISEWOMAN project was the brainchild of Elizabeth “Betsy” Shafer, a retired Iowa State professor who passed the reins to Litchfield in 2002. It aims to overcome a myth held by many Americans.

 

“[Heart disease] has always been considered a man’s disease,” Litchfield said. Despite this perception, research shows that more women than men have died from the disease in the last 20 years.

 

“Women are actually at higher risk,” she said. “The first heart attack is more likely to be fatal for a female than a male.”

 

It comes as no surprise, then, that education is a central theme of the program. “Many women are unaware of their risk factors,” said Litchfield. “If they’re uninsured or underinsured, they may not be getting medications to control their blood cholesterol, high blood pressure, or diabetes. This is a high-risk group that doesn’t know that it’s high-risk.”

 

Iowa’s WISEWOMAN project has differentiated itself from other states’ by emphasizing face-to-face interaction – rather than mailings and phone calls – while also employing the expertise of the state’s extension specialists.

 

The project consists of 12 biweekly sessions, each 90 minutes in length. According to Litchfield, the staff utilizes a “magazine format” that breaks each session into 10 to 20 minute components and keeps the participants engaged.

 

“In those 90-minute sessions, they are introduced to a nutrition and physical activity educational topic,” said Litchfield. “They also do some skill-building activity – actually putting what they’re learning into practice.”

 

Physical skill-builders consist of activities such as stretching and weight training, while nutrition skills include learning to modify recipes to lower their fat and sodium content. The sessions also focus on empowering women to change their own lives.

 

With help from the Iowa Department of Public Health and the University of Iowa Center for Public Health Statistics, Litchfield’s team has collected data from nearly 1500 women. Those women received health screens – which measured physiological indicators such as blood pressure and cholesterol levels – before and after the intervention program. That data is now being analyzed and should be ready for reporting by the end of the year.

 

The participants have also contributed self-reports about their behavior following the intervention. While acknowledging the limitations of self-reporting, Litchfield is excited that women have indicated they are reducing their fat consumption and increasing their fiber intake. “We’re seeing some very favorable changes,” she said.

 

Litchfield’s team has conducted focus groups and surveys along the way as a means of gauging the success of the program. “The evaluations by the participants are very positive,” Litchfield said. “Once the participant is there and engaged in the intervention, they have nothing but positive things to say about it.”