Editor: Shannon Cottongame
September 15, 2021
A university-led, paid study called Change Club offers Bosque County residents an opportunity to engage their community by exploring ways to improve the health of its residents.
As part of the study, Change Club, led by Texas A&M AgriLife and Cornell University, will implement a new community-change project that attempts to make healthy eating and physical activity easier for Bosque County residents.
Change Club study will then use information collected to study the effectiveness of other, similarly focused community-change projects. Their hope is to inform stronger projects for promoting health.
The Change Club study has recruited members to join a committee, which will lead the charge by identifying prospective areas for healthy improvement across the built environment — the places where residents live, work and play.
Change Club members will receive limited funding to complete the projects selected for their communities.
“This infusion of money, solely focused on improving the built environment, is really a great opportunity for Bosque County to begin thinking about how it will improve the health of its residents in a measurable way, long-term,” said Bosque County Extension Agent Chris Coon.
Participants could earn up to $250 over the course of the study for completing data collection activities annually from approximately 2021 to 2024. Data collection activities include completing an online survey and an online food diary; wearing a physical activity tracker (pedometer) for seven days; providing physical measurements including height, weight, blood pressure, and heart rate; and providing a fasting blood sample to assess your glucose and lipids.
Bosque County residents can join the Change Club Study by visiting changeclubstudy.org today. Contact Coon for more information or browse the Change Club website to find out more about creating healthy communities.
The Lakelander 