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Within Latin America, Chile has one of the highest prevalence of obesity. Public health efforts are centered on preventing obesity early in life. Preschool-aged children are developing eating habits that can last up to several years and they are becoming more receptive to their immediate social environment (particularly parents). Parents and children feeding interactions —either […]

Health knowledge, and habits are known to begin during early childhood by vicarious learning from parents, siblings, caregivers, and peers. Thus, approaches that aim to modify behaviors of young Mexican children, need to understand children and caregivers’ knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions, as well as the factors that influence them. Considering this, the goal of the […]

In the United States, the known associations between social disadvantage, stress, and impaired health have been called into question by the Hispanic-Health-Paradox. The Hispanic-Health-Paradox posits that immigrants and their children have better health, exhibit higher resilience, and have longer life-expectancy than their native-born counterparts, despite greater exposure to environmental stressors including high levels of poverty, […]

Gardening is one of the most popular home-based leisure activities among American adults. However, the relationship between gardening and specific health behaviors (i.e., diet, physical activity, and sleep) remains unclear. Further, there is a paucity of data examining the familial factors (e.g., gardening with grand children or children) that increase the likelihood of gardening among […]

“Illinois Pathways to Health” is a two year project aimed to ensure statewide access to and sustainability of chronic disease self-management education for older adults and adults with disabilities, with a focus on underserved populations. This project will build upon the existing infrastructure to create a sustainable, integrated statewide evidence based health promotion network.

The Abriendo Caminos-Promotora project aims to recruit, train, and support community volunteers to educate Latino families about health lifestyles, with the long-term objective of decreasing obesity and related health problems. Abriendo Caminos-Promotora places a strong emphasis on program sustainability and cultural relevance – which are the strengths of the promotora-model. This project builds on Abriendo Caminos (or “Clearing the Path for […]