WISEWOMAN Program Locations
South Carolina

Background: In 2008, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control was funded as a standard project. The program is housed within the Bureau of Chronic Disease and Community Health, Division of Cancer Prevention and Control.

Lifestyle Intervention: South Carolina uses the A New Leaf… Choices for Healthy Living manual to help women develop a healthier diet, increase physical activity, and become tobacco free. A New Leaf is a structured nutrition and physical activity assessment and counseling program focusing on cardiovascular disease risk reduction. It is specifically tailored to the target population, and is an intervention tool primarily focused on older women, targets low-income individuals, is written at a 6th grade reading level, and highlights Southern eating patterns.

Screening: Risk factor screening includes blood pressure, glucose, cholesterol and other lipids testing as well as assessing weight, medical history, tobacco use, dietary pattern, and physical inactivity.

Sites:Federally qualified Community Health Centers in select Regions of the state will be providing screening services to qualified women aged 47-64 years, and deliver multi-session lifestyle intervention to women based on their cardiovascular disease risk factors.

Key Partners: Primary care centers, public health regions 4 and 6, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, American Diabetes Association, intraagency partners, and community agencies and organizations.

For more information, please contact: Dianna Lydiard Director, SC BCCEDP/WISEWOMAN Programs 2600 Bull Street Columbia, SC 29202 Phone: 803-545-4116 E-Mail: lydiard@dhec.sc.gov Yaw Boateng, MS, MPH, LRD, CDE Coordinator, WISEWOMAN Program 105 N. Magnolia Street Sumter, SC 29154 Phone: 803-934-2902 Fax: 803-773-6366 E-Mail: boateny@dhec.sc.gov

Program Highlights

Direct Services

• The South Carolina WISEWOMAN program conducted 1,632 screenings during the 2009–2010 reporting period; exceeding its screening goal by 17%.¹
• The South Carolina WISEWOMAN program conducted 550 lifestyle intervention sessions during the 2009–2010 reporting period.

Partnerships

• The South Carolina WISEWOMAN program partners with the South Carolina Diabetes Prevention and Control program and Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention program to hold an Annual Chronic Disease Symposium to provide professional education to providers related to chronic disease prevention, control, management, and standards of care. The program offers continuing medical education credits and continuing education units for participants.

Evaluation

• The South Carolina WISEWOMAN Program and the University of South Carolina's Public Health Consortium are evaluating South Carolina’s lifestyle intervention to assess the impact it has had on participants' behavior changes. The evaluation will be used by the program to help assess the effectiveness and outcomes of its lifestyle intervention.

Reference

1. Data are reported from the preliminary WISEWOMAN Minimum Data Elements report (October 2010). Screening includes any WISEWOMAN-funded screening (blood pressure, cholesterol, or diabetes) provided from July 1, 2009, to June 30, 2010. Lifestyle interventions refer to the number of lifestyle intervention sessions conducted from July 1, 2009, to June 30, 2010.