Mississippi Community Research Articles

Evaluation of the impact of a residency in an independent pharmacy in rural Mississippi

ObjectivesTo evaluate the impact of a postgraduate year 1 (PGY1) community pharmacy residency program on clinical pharmacy service implementation and enhancement in a rural Mississippi community. SettingAn independent rural community pharmacy in Canton, MS. Practice description and innovationDelivery of clinical pharmacy services provided by PGY1 community residents 1 day a week to an underserved population during an 18-month period. EvaluationEconomic impact of a community pharmacy residency on the pharmacy's revenue stream determined by calculating an estimated dollar amount generated by clinical pharmacy services. ResultsBy providing services 1 day a week, the residents were able to directly contribute an estimated $8000 of revenue from vaccinations and medication therapy management services. In addition, residents provided point-of-care testing, facilitated group education, developed a medication synchronization program, and assisted with physician outreach. ConclusionOverall, community pharmacy residencies can contribute to the generation of revenue in rural independent settings and may also offer an opportunity to generate revenue in different areas that were not present before residency implementation, thereby improving access to care for patients.

Perception of Policy and Environmental Action to Promote Healthy Behaviors in African American Communities.

The present study aimed to examine the perceptions of African American communities regarding the involvement of political leaders in facilitating policy and environmental change promoting healthy eating and physical activity. We selected the Metro Jackson Area comprised of Hinds, Madison and Rankin Counties because it is a combination of urban and rural communities. The sample consisted of 70 participants from seven sites. A total of seven focus groups were asked to respond to one question to assess political leaders’ involvement in healthy living: “When you think about your political leaders that you have in the Jackson, Mississippi area, do any of them promote healthy eating and physical activity?” Focus groups consisted of six to 12 participants and were asked to comment on their participation in physical activity. The focus group interviews were digitally recorded. The recorded interviews were transcribed by a professional transcriptionist. Community members could not recollect much participation from political leaders in the health prevention/intervention efforts. In each of the counties, there was evidence that there was some involvement by local politicians in health promotion issues, but not on a large scale. In conclusion, making healthy foods and products available in neighborhood stores has long been associated with healthy behaviors and positive health outcomes. This can make a difference in the Mississippi communities where supermarkets are not accessible and health disparities abound.

Evaluation of Mowing Frequency on Right-of-Way Plant Communities in Mississippi

Evaluation of Mowing Frequency on Right-of-Way Plant Communities in Mississippi

Evaluation of Mowing Frequency on Right-of-Way Plant Communities in Mississippi

AbstractNative grasses and native wildflowers are declining, especially along roadside right-of-ways because of intensive mowing and herbicide management practices. Roadside right-of-ways undergo regular disturbances such as mowing, maintenance, and road developments that affect soils, groundwater, surface hydrology, and vegetation composition. We investigated species richness and percent coverage within plant communities along highway right-of-ways to determine if reduced mowing increased native plant coverage. The study was conducted using 10 research plots situated along Highway 25 in Oktibbeha and Winston counties, Mississippi. Each research plot consisted of three different treatments as follows: one that included greater than four mowings per year, one mowing only in fall, and one mowing only in fall with a supplemental native wildflower seeding. Using line transect sampling, we detected 277 plant species, which included native and nonnative forbs, legumes, grasses, rushes, sedges, and woody perennials (vines, shrubs, and trees). Total percent coverage of native and nonnative plants within different growth form categories did not differ among treatments (F2,96 = 0.45, P = 0.83). However, coverage differed between uplands and lowlands (F1,96 = 18.22, P ≤ 0.001), between years (F1,96 = 14.54, P ≤ 0.001), between fall and spring seasons (F1,96 = 16.25, P ≤ 0.001), and interacted between years and seasons (F1,96 = 24.08, P ≤ 0.001) and seasons and elevations (F1,96 = 5.00, P ≤ 0.001). Nonnative agronomic grasses exhibited the greatest coverage (> 90%) in all treatments. Percent coverage of each plant growth form was greatest in lowlands. Our research showed an increase of native grasses and wildflower species along roadsides with a reduced mowing regimen. We concluded that the timing and intensity of mowing for the duration of our study had little effect on the species composition of plant communities. However, one mowing per year retained agronomic plant coverage for erosion control and soil stabilization during roadside maintenance. Specific proactive management implementations can include native plantings, selective herbicide use to decrease nonnative grasses, continual mowing from roadside edge to 10 m, and only one mowing in late fall, but with an extension of the boundary to reach beyond 10 m from the roadside edge to suppress the invasion of woody plants, which could lead to lower long-term maintenance costs.

Mississippi Communities for Healthy Living.

Improving the diet of communities experiencing health inequities can be challenging given that multiple dietary components are low in quality. Mississippi Communities for Healthy Living was designed to test the comparative effectiveness of nutrition education using a single- versus multiple-message approach to improve the diet of adult residents in the Lower Mississippi Delta. The single-message approach targeted discretionary calories while the multiple-message approach also targeted vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and lean protein. Delta food frequency questionnaires were used to measure participants' diet, while the Healthy Eating Index-2005 (HEI-2005) was used to generate diet quality scores. Generalized linear mixed model regression was used to test for significant time, treatment, and time × treatment interaction effects in HEI-2005 component and total score changes. The majority of participants in the single- and multiple-message arms ( n = 114 and 127, respectively) were female (88% and 96%, respectively), African American (90% and 98%, respectively), overweight or obese (92% and 87%, respectively), and 41 to 60 years of age (57% and 43%, respectively). Significant time effects were present for HEI-2005 total and component scores, with three exceptions-whole fruit, total grains, and saturated fat. Significant treatment effects were present for two components-total and whole fruit; scores were higher in the multiple-message approach arm as compared to the single-message approach arm across time points. No interaction effects were significant for any of the HEI-2005 scores. Focusing nutrition education on the discretionary calories component of the diet may be as effective as focusing on multiple components for improving diet quality.

Vulnerability of Coastal Communities from Storm Surge and Flood Disasters.

Disasters in the form of coastal storms and hurricanes can be very destructive. Preparing for anticipated effects of such disasters can help reduce the public health and economic burden. Identifying vulnerable population groups can help prioritize resources for the most needed communities. This paper presents a quantitative framework for vulnerability measurement that incorporates both socioeconomic and flood inundation vulnerability. The approach is demonstrated for three coastal communities in Mississippi with census tracts being the study unit. The vulnerability results are illustrated as thematic maps for easy usage by planners and emergency responders to assist in prioritizing their actions to vulnerable populations during storm surge and flood disasters.

Wednesdays in Mississippi: Proper Ladies Working for Radical Change, Freedom Summer 1964 by Debbie Z. Harwell

Reviewed by: Wednesdays in Mississippi: Proper Ladies Working for Radical Change, Freedom Summer 1964 by Debbie Z. Harwell Amy C. Schneidhorst (bio) Wednesdays in Mississippi: Proper Ladies Working for Radical Change, Freedom Summer 1964. By Debbie Z. Harwell. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2014. ix + 256 pp. Students and scholars of Northern citizens’ participation in the Freedom Summer campaign in Mississippi will be very familiar with Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) student organizers’ commitment and bravery as they lived among, organized, and attempted to register black rural Mississippi residents to vote during the summer of 1964. Until now, little has been known about the network of women allies who channeled resources between Northern supporters and Freedom Summer Projects and who made significant inroads to establishing relationships with segregationist white Southern women in an effort to de-escalate the tensions between the races in Jackson, Mississippi. Harwell deftly recreates, from oral history interviews and a patchwork of archival collections, the previously surreptitious activities of an integrated, interfaith group of mature black and white women who built ties and gained entrée into segregated Southern white society by taking advantage of their common ties with national women’s associations and their performance of respectable womanhood. Black and white; Northern and Southern; Christian, Jewish, and Catholic women participated in the Wednesdays in Mississippi (WIMS), organized by the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW), the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW), and the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA). Teams of Northern women flew into Mississippi communities on short weekly missions to research conditions in Freedom Summer projects. Even more significant long-term, WIMS teams made gains in building a base of support from politically moderate and pro-segregation Southern white women in an effort to reduce resistance to the civil rights workers and [End Page 446] the Freedom Summer project. In the process, these politically savvy and courageous women created unprecedented spaces for potential future support among white Southern women civic leaders for the emerging revolution in civil rights and welfare rights. Harwell spotlights the importance of northern Jewish women and African-American women in continuing a progressive political vision for interracial alliances to further human relations after World War II. The 1963 March on Washington’s organizers’ failure to publicly recognize women’s leadership at that historic event sparked YWCA and NCNW leader Dorothy Height to organize women to assert their unique perspectives and talents within the civil rights movement. Harwell illuminates African American women’s leadership and commitment to interfaith, cross-class and cross-race organizing that nurtured dialogue and built alliances toward subverting geographic and social segregation. Less familiar is the political partnership and friendship between Height and WIMS co-founder Polly Cowan, a wealthy suburban Chicago resident from a secular Jewish family, who became lifelong friends with Height and found a “spiritual home” in the NCNW, an organization that not only advocated for African American women but also committed to creating an equitable society through interracial dialogue (34). Height, Cowen and other staffers were committed to building a cross-race alliance based on the conviction that white Americans, negatively impacted by the isolation and social control, were important partners in dismantling the “Cotton Curtain,” the racial apartheid system. The establishment of interracial spaces and acting interracially were essential to building acceptance for more equitable human relations, initially in the Deep South and later replicated by WIMS veterans in Northern urban communities such as Chicago, Philadelphia, and Boston. Harwell is also sensitive to differences among Southern and Northern Jewish women and how their particular local contexts influenced the perceptions of the potential for social change. Throughout, Harwell cites the prophetic call to heal the world as a basis for Northern Jewish women’s leadership in this human relations movement in the Deep South. Harwell’s book devotes considerable attention to the double consciousness of Southern Jewish women. Many long-time Jewish residents of the South were reticent to publicly support the civil rights movement, socialized enough into white Southern culture to cling to a protection of whiteness and class privilege, and minority enough to fear anti-Semitic backlash from white supremacists. Harwell argues that white Southerners needed neutral...

Natural and Manmade Disasters: Continuing Nemesis for Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama Fishing Communities Pre- and Post-Katrina

Natural and Manmade Disasters: Continuing Nemesis for Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama Fishing Communities Pre- and Post-Katrina

“—it’s pretty easy to forget what it’s like to be a have-not”: Envisioning and Experiencing Trauma in Josh Neufeld’s A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge

Following the catastrophic events after Hurricane Katrina annihilated much of the southern Gulf Coast, comics artist Josh Neufeld volunteered with the Red Cross and worked providing aid to rural communities in southern Mississippi. While there, Neufeld was struck by the stories he heard, and decided he needed to give voice to those who lacked a public forum to vocalize their discontent. The product of his interviews is the graphic novel A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge . Revolving around the plights of seven New Orleanians in the days immediately prior to and following Hurricane Katrina, A.D . encapsulates a myriad of responses to the storm – from the middle-class who managed to leave town, to those who were trapped at the Superdome, to wealthy residents who had hurricane parties in their French Quarter villas. In the pursuit of giving his subjects voices, Neufeld manages to capture the effects of a traumatic experience with remarkable clarity and precision, allowing his readers to understand how the storm wreaked havoc on the lives of New Orleans’ natives. In addition to the print version of A.D ., Neufeld also published an online edition, replete with hyperlinks which lead readers to various resources which prompt them to investigate the storm in greater depth. My paper explores the various representations of trauma in Neufeld’s text, specifically arguing that through his use of hyperlinks in the Web based A.D ., Neufeld projects trauma in a surprisingly experiential way, and thereby better lets his audience understand the position of those who experienced Katrina firsthand.

Use of standardized test scores to predict success in a computer applications course

The purpose of this study was to see if a relationship existed between American College Testing (ACT) scores (i.e., English, reading, mathematics, science reasoning, and composite) and student success in a computer applications course at a Mississippi community college. The study showed that while the ACT scores were excellent predictors of success, the ACT scores did not predict nonsuccess. Inclusion in the nonsuccess group is only slightly accounted for in the models by use of either ACT composite score or ACT subscores; therefore, there must be other factors that affect the student outcome in the course. However, the odds ratio indicated that for every one point of increase in ACT composite score, a student is 18% more likely to be successful in the computer applications course. Likewise, a student is 11.9% more likely to be successful in the computer applications course for every one point of increase on ACT science reasoning score.

Mississippi Communities for Healthy Living: Implementing a nutrition intervention effectiveness study in a rural health disparate region

BackgroundIntervention research in rural, health disparate communities presents unique challenges for study design, implementation, and evaluation. Challenges include 1) culturally appropriate intervention components, 2) participant recruitment and retention, 3) treatment cross-contamination, 4) intervention delivery and data collection, and 5) potential measurement reactivity. PurposeThe purposes of this paper are to 1) detail the methods of the MCHL study and 2) report baseline demographic characteristics of study participants. The secondary aim is to determine if study participants were engaging in behavior changes after enrollment and prior to intervention initiation. MethodsMCHL was developed using the RE-AIM planning and evaluation framework (reach, effectiveness, adoption, implementation, maintenance). Intervention components were based on Roger's diffusion of innovation attributes that promote adoption of a new innovation as well as on the psychosocial constructs of social support, self-efficacy and decisional balance. Rolling enrollment data collection was used to acquire sufficient sample size and a second data collection just prior to intervention implementation assessed measurement reactivity effects. Participant outcomes included diet quality, blood pressure, weight status, and quality of life. Cluster stratified assignment to one of two treatment arms was utilized to minimize cross contamination. Generalized linear models were used to compare enrollment measures between the two treatment arms while mixed model linear regression was used to test for changes in diet quality outcomes from enrollment to pre-intervention baseline. ResultsThere were no significant differences in participant demographic, anthropometric or clinical measures between the two treatment arms at enrollment. With the exception of total vegetables, none of the diet quality indicators were significantly different between enrollment and baseline timepoints. ConclusionsConducting nutrition intervention research in a rural health disparate region requires flexibility in adapting the recruitment, retention, and data collection procedures while maintaining a high level of scientific rigor. Negligible research participation effects, such as measurement reactivity, were noted in this population. However, further research is needed to identify methods to successfully recruit and retain Caucasian females to participate in community-based nutrition interventions in this region.

Rural Mississippi Community College Students’ Perceptions of Employability Skills

On a survey, 100 community college students rated 10 employability skills as being important and indicated that they possessed all of the skills. No difference existed between academic and career-technical students on skills perceived to be of greatest importance, while career-technical students reported a higher competence level on two skills. Finally, while academic students rated importance and competence equally, career-technical students rated their competence at a higher level than they did the skills’ importance.

Resilience in Planning: A Review of Comprehensive Plans in Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina

This paper analyzes and compares the decisions communities made in rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 to determine to what extent post-Katrina comprehensive plans promote resilience based on built environment factors that have been shown to improve social networking, physical safety, and community building. Levels of recovery are also examined, measured by the current numbers of occupied housing units in each community compared with pre-Katrina numbers. After Katrina, multiple planning documents were produced by a variety of organizations. Mississippi state statute requires each municipality to have a long-range comprehensive plan adopted by the local governing body. Plans establish goals over a 20- to 25-year period of development and are required to address residential, commercial, and industrial development; parks, open space, and recreation; street and road improvements; and public schools and community facilities. To capture the most significant interests and values, the overarching goals and vision statements of post-Katrina plans were compared and analyzed. Plans from four Mississippi communities affected by Hurricane Katrina—Biloxi, Ocean Springs, Pascagoula, and Waveland—indicate that communities in the region understand many of the present strengths and weaknesses with respect to disaster resilience and have outlined a strategy to mitigate damage, reduce vulnerability, and create support networks to speed up recovery for a future disaster on the scale of Katrina. Like any plan, how and to what extent these ideals are implemented is a concern. During interviews in these communities, recurring concerns were public participation and, at the least, attention to the needs of residents in the planning process.

The relationship between interviewer–respondent race match and reporting of energy intake using food frequency questionnaires in the rural South United States

ObjectiveThe purpose of the observational study was to determine whether interviewer race influences food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) reporting accuracy in a Deep South, largely African American cohort. MethodsA secondary analysis was conducted to investigate the influence of interviewer race on energy reporting of 319 African Americans who participated in the Mississippi Communities for Healthy Living intervention in May–June 2011, a community-based and USDA-funded project. Reported energy intake was compared to total energy expenditure to identify normal (ENR), under-(EUR) and over-reporters (EOR). Multivariate logistic regression models determined the relationship between race match and energy misreporting, accounting for confounding variables (educational level, health status perception, BMI, gender, and age) identified using chi-square/correlation analyses. ResultsThe sample included 278 African Americans with 165 EURs, 26 EORs, and 87 ENRs identified. Logistic regression analyses revealed that there was no relationship between race-matched participants and EUR or EOR; controlling factors, BMI and perceived health status were significant in the model. ConclusionThis study is the first to our knowledge to examine whether race influences dietary intake reporting which may influence assessment data used for comparison with health outcomes. This may have important implications for research conducted in health disparate populations, particularly rural, Southern populations.

Free-Living and Particle-Associated Bacterioplankton in Large Rivers of the Mississippi River Basin Demonstrate Biogeographic Patterns.

The different drainage basins of large rivers such as the Mississippi River represent interesting systems in which to study patterns in freshwater microbial biogeography. Spatial variability in bacterioplankton communities in six major rivers (the Upper Mississippi, Missouri, Illinois, Ohio, Tennessee, and Arkansas) of the Mississippi River Basin was characterized using Ion Torrent 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing. When all systems were combined, particle-associated (>3 μm) bacterial assemblages were found to be different from free-living bacterioplankton in terms of overall community structure, partly because of differences in the proportional abundance of sequences affiliated with major bacterial lineages (Alphaproteobacteria, Cyanobacteria, and Planctomycetes). Both particle-associated and free-living communities ordinated by river system, a pattern that was apparent even after rare sequences or those affiliated with Cyanobacteria were removed from the analyses. Ordination of samples by river system correlated with environmental characteristics of each river, such as nutrient status and turbidity. Communities in the Upper Mississippi and the Missouri and in the Ohio and the Tennessee, pairs of rivers that join each other, contained similar taxa in terms of presence-absence data but differed in the proportional abundance of major lineages. The most common sequence types detected in particle-associated communities were picocyanobacteria in the Synechococcus/Prochlorococcus/Cyanobium (Syn/Pro) clade, while free-living communities also contained a high proportion of LD12 (SAR11/Pelagibacter)-like Alphaproteobacteria. This research shows that while different tributaries of large river systems such as the Mississippi River harbor distinct bacterioplankton communities, there is also microhabitat variation such as that between free-living and particle-associated assemblages.

Assessing environmental support for better health: Active living opportunity audits in rural communities in the southern United States

ObjectiveLeisure-time physical activity in the United States is lower rural areas and the South and has been linked to socioeconomic and environmental aspects of where people live. The purpose of this study is to assess the built environment and policies for physical activity in rural communities. MethodsEight rural communities in Alabama and Mississippi were assessed in 2011 using the Rural Active Living Assessment (RALA) street segment (SSA), town-wide (TWA), and town program and policies (PPA) assessment tools. Community Health Advisors Trained as Research Partners (CHARPS) and local staff conducted the assessments. The TWA and PPA were scored by domain and total scores. Data were analyzed using descriptive and nonparametric statistics. Results117 segments were assessed in 22 towns in 8 counties. Built environmental barriers existed in all communities. Sidewalks were available in only 10–40% of the segments. TWA identified parks and playgrounds as the most available community feature. PPA scores indicated few policies for physical activity outside of school settings with mean scores higher in Mississippi compared to Alabama (61 vs. 49, respectively). ConclusionsMultiple components of rural communities can be successfully assessed by CHARPs using RALA tools, providing information about resources and barriers for physical activity.

The CHANGE Study: A Healthy-Lifestyles Intervention to Improve Rural Children's Diet Quality

BackgroundDespite the high rates of overweight and obesity among rural children, there have been limited interventions reported to improve the diet quality of rural, low-income children in the United States. ObjectiveOur aim was to evaluate students' diet quality at baseline and after implementing the CHANGE (Creating Healthy, Active and Nurturing Growing-Up Environments) study, a 2-year (2007-2009) randomized, controlled, community- and school-based intervention to prevent unhealthy weight gain among rural school-aged children. DesignWe used a school and community-based group randomized, controlled design. Participants/settingData were collected in eight rural communities in California, Kentucky, Mississippi, and South Carolina (one elementary school per community). Children in grades 1 to 6 participated in the study (n=432; mean age=8.65 years±1.6 years). Students' diets were assessed at baseline (spring or early fall 2008) and post intervention (spring 2009) using the Block Food Screener for ages 2 to 17 years. Statistical analysesMixed-model analysis of variance was used to examine the effect of the CHANGE study intervention on students' diets. Results were adjusted for corresponding baseline dietary values, sex, age, grade, race/ethnicity, and state, with school included as a random effect nested within condition. ResultsAt the end of 1 year, students enrolled in the CHANGE study intervention schools consumed significantly more vegetables (0.08 cups/1,000 kcal/day; P=0.03) and combined fruits and vegetables (0.22 cups/1,000 kcal/day; P<0.05) compared with students in control schools. Students in the intervention schools also showed a reduction in the average daily dietary glycemic index (GI=−1.22; P<0.05) and a trend toward more fruit consumption (0.15 cups/1,000 kcal/day; P=0.07). There were no significant differences in students' consumption of whole grains, legumes, dairy, potatoes/potato products, saturated fat, added sugars, or dietary fiber consumption. ConclusionsThe CHANGE study enhanced some aspects of rural students' dietary intake. Implementing similar interventions in rural America can be promising to support vegetable consumption.

Revisiting the Status, Needs, and Knowledge Levels of Mississippi’s Governmental Entities Relative to Urban Forestry

In 2004, Mississippi State University researchers determined the status, needs, and knowledge levels of Mississippi’s community leaders and communities relative to urban and community forestry benefits, programs, funding opportunities, and program implementation. As a result, this project’s goals were to build on past research and identify trends for past and current involvement and future interest levels among Mississippi’s small (&lt;2,000 people) to large (&gt;10,000 people) communities for urban and community forestry programs and assistance. This current effort revisited these communities, previously surveyed in 2004, and highlighted changes in knowledge levels and various activities and programs undertaken. A mail survey was sent to 293 Mississippi communities with 163 surveys returned for a response rate of 55.6%. In general, communities responding indicated that a sizable number of officials have increased their awareness or interest in urban and community forestry. Communities that wanted to establish programs the most again cited a lack of funding as the reason for not initiating projects or sustaining existing programs. Greater effort in disseminating information on funding opportunities was seen as necessary, given that most Mississippi communities were only aware of a few national programs. Participation in statewide or local urban forestry programs and activities was minimal. The authors’ previous study found that without quality, updated information on urban and community forestry and reliable funding, communities are limited in undertaking systematic planning and associated programs utilizing arboreal resources. Good information distribution, which has improved, and reliable funding are still limiting communities in undertaking systematic planning and associated urban and community forestry programs.

Development of the Mississippi Communities for Healthy Living Nutrition Education Toolkit

Development of the Mississippi Communities for Healthy Living Nutrition Education Toolkit

Effectiveness of the Mississippi Communities for Healthy Living (MCHL) Nutrition Intervention

Determine effectiveness of 2 nutrition interventions targeting women’s social/civic organizations in the Lower Mississippi Delta. Diffusion of Innovation theory and the RE-AIM structured framework for program development and evaluation guided the 6-month MCHL nutrition intervention. Intervention components included 6 education sessions with food demonstrations and home challenges, newsletters, and group “champions” to foster social support for dietary changes. Sixteen organizations (319 participants) were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 education groups using cluster sampling. A single message (SM) group received nutrition education on reducing solid fat and added sugars while a multiple message (MM) group received nutrition education on increasing whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and decreasing solid fats and added sugars. Dietary intake was assessed 3 months prior to intervention (T0), 1 week prior to intervention(T1) and immediately post-intervention (T2). 240 participants completed the T2 assessment (75% retention). HEI 2005 component and total scores were calculated from the Delta NIRI/Jackson Heart Study FFQ. Differences over time and between groups were assessed using repeated measures MANCOVA with T0 HEI scores as a covariate. Alpha < .05. Significant improvements occurred over time for both groups in total HEI 2005 (p= .007) and for whole grains, meat and beans, solid fats, total and dark green/orange vegetables (p< .001), and oils (p= .01). There were no between group differences except for total and whole fruit (MM > SM; p< .01). A 6-month, multi-component nutrition intervention tailored to women’s social/civic groups is effective in improving HEI 2005 scores whether targeting one HEI component or several.