Dr. Harris Huberman, SUNY Downstate Med Center
“Primeros Pasos Parenting Newsletters: A Low-Intensity Approach to Prevent Obesity in Latino Children”
This Salud America! pilot research project is a low-cost parenting intervention to reduce rates of overweight and obesity in Latino children during the first three years of life. The intervention is built around a series of age-paced parenting newsletters called Primeros Pasos in Spanish or Building Blocks in English (PP/BB), which are mailed monthly to families beginning at the birth of a child through age 3. The front page of each newsletter features an activity for the parent to try out with the child, and other content address obesity prevention with explicit messages about parent-child feeding interactions, general guidance on nutrition including breastfeeding, supplemental feedings, parenting, safety and discipline. Parents also receive periodic developmental surveys with added parenting questions based on the PP/BB newsletter messages, and quarterly telephone follow-up calls by a program staffer. In a randomized controlled trial, the study compared rates of overweight and obesity among children who had either received the PP/BB intervention (225 children) or were in a control group (225 children).
Presentation at Project Start: 2009
Presentation at Project End: 2011
Research Brief: 2011
Dr. Rebecca London, Standford University
“Linking After-School Program Participation With Latino Youths’ Obesity and Physical Fitness Outcomes”
This Salud America! pilot research project examines the link between participation in community-based after-school programming and physical fitness and overweight status among adolescents in a San Francisco Bay Area community. The study used individual-level administrative data from public and private agencies in Redwood City, Calif., to ask the following questions: 1) What is the extent of participation in primarily fitness-focused and other types of after-school programs? Which students are most likely to participate in each?; and 2) What are the effects of participation in after-school programs on students’ physical fitness and overweight trajectories over time? Are there differences in the effects of fitness-focused programs and other types of programs? To answer these questions, we examined the fitness and overweight status of 1,105 5th and 7th grade students. The study followed the same students over four years to analyze whether participating in after-school programs had an effect on whether a student was physically fit, and on whether he or she was overweight two years later, when they were in 7th and 9th grades, respectively. Students were mostly Latino (63%).
Presentation at Project Start: 2009
Presentation at Project End: 2011
Research Brief: 2011
Dr. Nelda Mier, Texas A&M Health Science Center
“Assessing the Built Environment in Colonias to Influence Policy Promoting Physical Activity in Mexican-American Children and Families”
This Salud America! pilot research project aims to produce policy recommendations for improving the built environment to support physical activity (PA) among low-income Mexican-American children and their families in 14 colonias in Hidalgo County, Texas. Colonias are unincorporated settlements along the U.S.-Mexico border where many people live in impoverished conditions and lack basic services such as running water. As part of the study, we are: Investigating the perceptions children ages 8-13 have about environmental factors that influence their PA; documenting the environmental characteristics of colonias; and reaching out to local stakeholders and policymakers regarding PA among children and families in colonias.
Presentation at Project Start: 2009
Presentation at Project End: 2011
Research Brief: 2011
Dr. Meizi He, UT San Antonio
