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The purpose of this paper is to test the feasibility of implementing a healthy lifestyles intervention to maintain or achieve healthy weight for low-income young adults in vocational education.

Non-randomized, quasi-experimental feasibility test of a ten-week intervention with follow-up assessment designed using PRECEDE-PROCEED. A convenience sample included low-income young adults (n=165), 18-24 years recruited from two vocational training facilities. The intervention had weekly: online educational modules, targeting the non-dieting approach through healthful eating, and physical activity; and messages to promote fruit and vegetable intake, increased physical activity and stress management. Anthropometrics were measured, and an online survey on physical activity and eating behavior (e.g. self-regulation, self-instruction, emotional eating) was administered at baseline, post-, and follow-up.

At baseline, males were overweight and females were obese based on average BMI; no significant change in BMI, food intake, physical activity, or stress management were noted following the intervention. Eating behavior changed in treatment vs control group; food self-regulation was higher (p=0.025) for high use treatment group compared to the control group.

Lifestyle interventions are critical for low-income young adults who are overweight or obese by 18-24 years of age. Young adults who engage in such interventions can make food behavior changes that can have a mediating effect on healthy weight management. Models like PRECEDE-PROCEED are vital to success when working toward sustainable programs within communities.

Few healthy lifestyle programs have been reported for low-income, non-college young adults, specifically with a largely male population, and none with PRECEDE-PROCEED.

Recruiting college students for research studies can be challenging. The purpose of this paper is to describe the lessons learned in the various recruitment strategies used for enrolling college students in a theory-based, tailored, and web-delivered health intervention at 13 US universities.

The community-based participatory research (CBPR) model was used to develop a staged-tailored, web-based, randomized control trial, focussing on eating behavior, physical activity, and stress management. Participant feedback during baseline assessments was used to evaluate recruitment strategies.

Findings from this feedback suggest that traditional recruitment strategies, such as newspaper ads and flyers, may not be the best approach for recruiting college students; instead, web-based efforts proved to be a better recruitment strategy.

This project included results from 13 US universities and thus may not be generalizable: more research is needed to determine successful recruitment methods for 18-24 years old college students.

This paper lessens the gap regarding successful recruitment strategies for 18-24 years old college students.