Category: Completed Projects

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 parent or child-centered— have been associated with child weight status and most of the research has been conducted in developed countries. Since feeding styles and practices are influenced by culture and context, little is known about the contextual and sociocultural aspects that affect how parents interact with their children during meals and other food-related contexts in Chile and other countries of Latin America. Most of the studies in Chile have focused on school age children and what children eat, but not how parents feed their children in early childhood and its influences. The objective of this study is to explore influences on feeding styles of parents with 3-to-5-year-old children residing in low-income neighborhoods in Santiago, Chile. A convenience sample of parents recruited in child care centers from low-middle income families will be interviewed using photo-elicitation. Understanding why parents feed their children in preschool years the way they do is key for developing culturally relevant programs.  Learning about the sociocultural and context factors behind parents’ feeding patterns may inform further research and ultimately lead to culturally-competent programs to prevent obesity early in life.

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 HOPS study is to document knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions about stress, obesity, diabetes, and yoga across three groups of preschool age children and their mothers. This qualitative study aims to document the attitudes and perceptions towards factors associated with early obesity development from three different groups: Mexicans in Mexico, first generation Mexican immigrants, and second generation Mexican descent. Data from this study will inform early childhood obesity prevention efforts interested in addressing the physical and mental health of families of Mexican descent in Mexico and the U.S.

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, lower education, language barriers, marginalization, isolation, and other socioeconomic disadvantages. Accordingly the FIESTA study is being done to gain better understanding about the relationship between psychosocial stress, and acculturation on measurements of cellular aging of Mexican mothers, mothers of Mexican descent, and preschool age children. Information from this study will help us understand the impact on obesity risk and other related health problems as well as improving the physical and mental health of families of Mexican descent. By elucidating biological processes confound within the Hispanic-Health-Paradox, we hope to identify the social and biological processes that buffer the health effects of social disadvantage and stress.

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 adults.

This project aims to determine the interrelationships between specific markers of health behaviors and gardening among adults. This aim will be accomplished by the administration a short survey/questionnaire (administered online or during an in-person interview). The survey questions are directed towards characterizing the gardening experience (e.g., frequency, types of foods grown), demographics, (e.g., ethnicity/heritage, level of education and income), health behavior history (e.g., smoking status, self-reported height and weight), health behaviors (e.g. family meal frequency, leisure time activity, sleep). The resultant data will provide vital information that will be used to develop future gardening interventions targeted at improving health behaviors.

To take the survey, please click here.

“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 Strong and Healthy Families), conceived in 2010, when it was offered at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as a nutrition education program for Spanish-speaking families. The six-week long program includes nutrition education and cooking activities that focus on preparing heathier versions of traditional Mexican foods.

Andiara Schwingel

The “Abuelas en Accion/ Grandmothers in Action” (AEA) program explored the feasibility of implementing a behavioral change program addressing physical activity, nutrition and stress management for Latina grandmothers aged 50 and older. The intervention was designed to be culturally sensitive to the targeted population through a partnership with faith-based organizations in developing and delivering an evidence-based behavioral change curriculum that incorporates both intergenerational activities and religious content. Key issues related to efficacy, adoption, implementation and maintenance of the program in Latino communities at the individual (study participants) and organizational (provider organization) levels were evaluated.

This study explored the links between religious inclination, intergenerational programming and health behavior. Religious inclination was assessed in two ways (1) Religious Context – partnering with religious organizations and church staff to endorse and teach an otherwise secular curriculum on church property, and (2) Religious Content – i.e. the inclusion of religious elements and discussions into an existing behavioral change curriculum.

Based on our previous study and the literature in the field we believe that the proposed project will generate new knowledge and insight by increasing our understanding about two important cultural elements of older Latina’s lives (intergenerational opportunities and religiosity). This knowledge assists Latino communities to develop, implement, evaluate, and sustain culturally competent behavioral change interventions that promote health and wellbeing. We are testing a classroom-based behavioral change program that is delivered by lay leaders who are already working in the community. This has the dual advantage of utilizing individuals who are familiar with local customs and traditions, while also being a sustainable delivery model that requires no new personnel to be hired to deliver the intervention. We believe this type of low cost, sustainable, culturally-tailored intervention has the maximum likelihood of facilitating long-term behavior change in the study participants, and strengthens the commitment of religious organizations to offer health promotion programs to the communities they serve.

Julie Bobitt

Because our older adult population is growing at such a rapid pace it is important to focus on initiatives and policies that will promote successful aging and prevent premature chronic disease and disability. Increasingly, there has been a focus on the utilization of evidence-based wellness programs to address the need for preventive efforts in older adults. The benefits of evidence based programming include a higher likelihood of successful programs that are based on research and proven to be effective, and more efficient use of funding resources (Brownson, Fielding, & Maylahn, 2009).

While the benefits of evidence-based programs are well established, more research is needed to determine whether the dissemination and implementation of evidence-based programming is, in fact, occurring and the extent to which the intended populations are being reached. Although there is a vast network established to serve the needs of older adults in the United States, and many evidence-based wellness programs have been researched and promoted at the national level, it is difficult to tell what factors influence adoption of these programs by organizations at the community level. This study is looking at the factors that impact the dissemination and implementation of evidence based wellness programs to older adults in Illinois Senior Centers.

Emerson Sebastiao

The health disparity among minority groups is well documented in the United States. Despite improvements on health care and preventive services, African Americans still face the burden of higher rates of chronic diseases, disabilities and mortalities. Physical activity is an important health component and despite its increased awareness, rates of participation are low. The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance estimates that about 51% of the older adult population does not meet the physical activity guidelines of 150 minutes per week of moderate intensity physical activity. Despite the growing number of studies and public health efforts to promote physical activity among different populations, African American women constitute one of the least active group. A partial explanation could be related to public health messages and interventions that are not cultural tailored. Emerson Sebastiao along with his mentors Dr. Chodzko-Zajko and Dr. Schwingel worked to disentangle and to understand the complexity of the sociocultural environmental and other factors that may affect the decision of older African American women to choose a healthy lifestyle with physical activity or to be sedentary.

This research project explored the role of socio-cultural environment in shaping health behavior, through a focus on physical activity of older African American women, beyond this exploring their conception of physical activity including barriers and facilitators. Thus, the main purpose of this research study is to deepen our understanding of factors that contribute to physical activity decisions among older African American women. By using a mixed-methods design, perceptions, attitudes, beliefs and values about physical activity were addressed. A new technique in the field of health behavior, known as photo-elicitation was employed. Photo-elicitation has a long time history in anthropology and sociology studies. This technique invites participants to take part in the research study; and therefore, more meaningful information about the investigated phenomenon is expected to be observed.

Preliminary findings show that measured by objective devices (accelerometer) older African American women report in average about 61 minutes per week of moderate-vigorous physical activity. In addition, it was observed that the way older African American women conceptualize physical activity, tends to be mixed with the definition used for exercise. We do believe that this research project has helped to understand more about African American women regarding physical activity behavior and move towards the development of better strategies and interventions that will have a higher impact on this population.

Deborah Linares