California will have millionaire financing to fight obesity in Latino children
Isabel Pantoja, 24, holds her ten-month-old baby Luis Gonzales as they wait at the bus station in Colima city where they headed for Luis’ medical check-up, in Mexico on November 9, 2017. Luis Manuel Gonzales is almost like a ten month old baby; she babbles her first words and wants to touch everything, but she has a dramatic difference that puts her life at stake: she weighs 28 kilos.
Photo: PEDRO PARDO / AFP / Getty Images
The University of Southern California (USC), in partnership with Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, has won a grant of nearly $ 25 million to establish a center focused on fighting obesity and chronic diseases in Latino children and families. in southern California.
USC said Thursday that the $ 24.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will allow them to establish a regional center in 10 Southern California counties dedicated to the Hispanic community.
The center’s goal is to develop and test family and culturally sensitive interventions on nutrition, environment and social factors that put children at risk of obesity and obesity-related chronic diseases for the rest of their lives, USC explained in a statement.
The creator of the center Michael Goran, professor of pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine, USC, warned in the statement that “all chronic diseases of adulthood, the main causes of death, these risk factors begin to be established in early life, probably even before birth ”.
Gorán explained that “this process is more pronounced among Latinos.” For example, at 2 years of age, Latinos have a much higher prevalence of obesity, are more resistant to insulin and have much higher risk factors for diabetes, the scientist noted.
The center will test new strategies such as the delivery of affordable groceries and recipe books and meal plans adapted to the Latino culture, among a wide variety of proposals.
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