Tiffany Miles, Ph.D., a researcher with the UAMS Translational Research Institute, wants to understand barriers to addressing obesity and food insecurities in two east Arkansas communities — Marvell and Elaine.
Miles, who’s also an instructor in the UAMS College of Medicine Department of Pediatrics Division of Nutrition, led a nine-month project in Marvell and Elaine designed to determine health barriers and facilitate discussions around a community-led obesity intervention. The study was funded by a $25,000 pilot award from the Translational Research Institute.
Miles’ study “Community Developed and Implemented Obesity Interventions in Marvell, Arkansas,” launched in March and concluded in November. It explored the communities’ perception of nutrition, obesity, food insecurity, maternal nutrition as well as whether residents of Marvell and Elaine were aware of the area’s obesity rates, and how they wanted to solve the issues. Additionally, the researchers wanted the public’s outlook on past interventions brought into, or developed by, the community.
“The project focused on what worked, what didn’t work, if something did work, why wasn’t it sustained, what the community members would like to see moving forward and how they’d like to maintain the project, once the research is complete,” Miles said. “I wanted the residents to discuss evidence-based interventions and programs and how to adapt it to their community.
“By fostering trust, partnership and shared leadership between researchers and residents, the project examined the health disparities in a region that’s disproportionately affected by food insecurity and metabolic disease.”
To execute this community-based participatory research project, Miles partnered with Marvell’s Boys, Girls, Adults Community Development Center and held five focus group sessions. Each group had 20 to 25 participants, primarily consisting of Marvell or Elaine residents who were between 18 and 39 years old.
Information gathered from the focus groups helped the researchers better understand community perceptions of obesity, maternal health and nutrition. The candid, in-person interactions with the study’s participants were vital to the team.
“When people came to the first focus group, I could tell they wondered who we were and why we’re there,” Miles said. “Some of them even asked me straight-up, what I wanted with them. Community members told us that they’re tired of people coming to their town and telling them that they’re obese. That’s not a positive conversation they want to have, especially if the researcher is not from their community. They wanted people to hear them and understand their reasons for why they can’t maintain a healthy lifestyle.”
Participants also referenced that people not understanding what malnutrition was, along with the Delta region being food insecure, factored into the high rates of obesity.
“We often discussed how food insecurity can lead to obesity,” Miles said. “We also discussed how it’s not about eating less, it’s about not eating the proper amounts of certain foods, that can lead to malnutrition.”
Empowering people to tackle obesity
The project also included a grand finale community gathering, “Seeds for the Harvest.” During the event, findings from the focus group discussions were disseminated, and a breakout session was facilitated on how to best modify and sustain evidence-based strategies took place.
Attendees also gave their feedback on the study, the potential implementation of a nutrition education class, and the creation of a partnership with the Marvell-Elaine School District EAST program in which students develop a technology to help address a community need.
“It’s a blessing to be able to work with Dr. Tiffany Miles,” said Beatrice Shelby, executive director of the community center. “Her project gave our center, and the residents of both Marvell and Elaine, one more opportunity to build community competency by empowering people to help themselves.”
Miles said that Marvell is similar to communities surrounding Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where she grew up. That’s one of the reasons why she enjoyed leading the program.
“Any research that I do, I must have a connection to my personal why,” she said. “This project connected with my personal why.
“During our final event, the people cared about everything we did. They were attentive. That reminded me of how vital this study and event is for the people of Marvell and Elaine. Coming together as a community was important to them. Research aside, I was so glad that we could meet a need for these communities.”