Current Projects Fact Sheets

ENLACE: A Partnership to Promote Physical Activity Among Mexican Immigrant Women

SUMMARY

This National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute-funded program uses a community-based, participatory research approach to identify and understand factors that influence moderate-intensity physical activity behavior Latinas in Richland and Lexington Counties, S.C., and Cameron and Hidalgo counties in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, a predominantly Latino region of Texas. Academic researchers will work with community members to conduct a community assessment that includes 12 focus groups and 26 interviews with key community leaders. Assessment results will be used to develop a program to promote physical activity that is tailored to meet the need of Latinas in these to geographically distinct areas of the country. The ENLACE intervention, based on the promotora model, will be pilot-tested in 120 women using an experimental research design. The primary outcome for the pilot study, measured at baseline and six months, is minutes-per-week of moderate to vigorous physical activity.

FUNDING

National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
2008-2010
7R21HLO87765

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS

• Deborah Parra-Medina, PhD
  IHPR, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio

CO-PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS

• DeAnne Hilinger Messias, PhD
  College of Nursing, University of South Carolina
• Patricia Sharpe, PhD
  Prevention Research Center, University of South Carolina

COLLABORATORS

• South Carolina Hispanic Latino Health Coalition
• Texas A&M Center for Housing and Urban Development, Colonias Program

CONCLUSIONS

Program results will be used to develop and evaluate a theoretically-based, culturally competent intervention targeting individual, family and community influences of physical activity among Mexican immigrant women.

PUBLICATIONS

In progress