A Faith-based Community Participatory Research Project for Preventing Childhood Obesity Among Latino Families

Transcription

1 A Faith-based Community Participatory Research Project for Preventing Childhood Obesity Among Latino Families Meizi He, PhD Zenong Yin, PhD Jessica Leeds, MA Lalaine Estella Ricardo, B.S.c (candidate) The University of Texas at San Antonio

2 Background Overweight and obesity are a public health concern 38% of Mexican-American children are either overweight or obese The healthcare burden of childhood obesity highlight need for effective intervention strategies to reverse the epidemic

3 Background Faith-based communities are potential venues for obesity prevention programs for the Latino community Churches supply social, emotional, and material support in addition to religious worship Congregations offer social networking and a supportive and empowering environment to facilitate behavioral change A majority of Latinos practice a Catholic or Protestant faith, and are very likely to associate with a faith-based community

4 Background The willingness and readiness of the Latino communities to prevent childhood obesity through faith-based setting remains unknown A community-based participatory research approach can be used as a means to in-depth explore the Latino faith-based community s perceptions of and willingness to address the childhood obesity epidemic

5 Objective To qualitatively explore Latino faith-based communities perceptions of and willingness to address the childhood obesity epidemic

6 Methods Approach: qualitative study Setting: Faith-based communities in San Antonio s West Side Participants and data collection: In-depth interviews with church leaders and lay leaders 8-10 focus groups with church going children and their parents, respectively Data analysis: Interviews and focus group meetings are audio recorded and transcribed verbatim Inductive data analysis with assistance of Nvivo v. 8

7 Sampling framework

8 Research progress The study has been approved by the IRB at the University of Texas at San Antonio; 14 churches invited, 6 voluntarily participated in the study; 14 church leaders and lay-leaders were interviewed; Two focus groups were conducted with children and their parents, respectively; Preliminary data analysis was performed on indepth interview transcripts with 6 church leaders.

9 Preliminary findings 1. Awareness of the burning health issues We re seeing our Hispanic population suffer tremendously due to diabetes as a result of unhealthy eating habits.

10 2. Willingness to address childhood obesity in their congregations. You have to be concerned not just with teaching what I call straight religion scripture, but you also have to address the needs of the people. There s not much we can do on our own, but if some people come in who have expertise, then my role would be to welcome these folks, and say, yes, whatever resources you have, let s see if the church could be used as a conduit for getting these resources out to the people. If there s any health programs that will be addressing the issues, they need to come with the agenda of how we are going to be educating and helping this community, not to make a dollar.

11 3. Relationship between Faith & Health : life is a God given gift Caring for the body is a Christian's responsibility A Christian s wholeness means spiritual and physical health

12 We are stewards of our body, if you will. Yes, they are ours, but they are also ours to care for And if our bodies are not in particularly good, healthy shape, you re not going to do much serving. God gave you a body. A person has to take care of it. Life is a gift from God; you don t abuse it by not taking care of it, not watching what you eat, not getting exercise and so on. I think that s fundamental to our existence. Healthy eating and a healthy person is more likely also to be more interested in their spiritual life.

13 4. Perceived barriers and challenges: parents lack of knowledge The parents are not very well educated, so that means a lot of the times they either can t help their child or don t see it as something all that valuable. A lot of parents just don t know... Probably many of them don t realize that they are not giving their children a healthy diet, not providing them or guiding them toward a healthy lifestyle.

14 4. Perceived barriers and challenges Disadvantaged economic status of congregation members A lot of families don t have a lot of money; food is their reward You have a cookout, you have food. We re not just interested in the religious aspect. As a pastor, I d be concerned about the social-economic (issues). People don t have work, for example. People don t have documents.

15 5. Perceived facilitators Church is a credible setting for health programs Education is an integral part of any church life. The people will listen in church, I give them credit for that. Community empowerment If people do see that there is a problem, that there s a solution and there is something that they can do about it, then you d certainly get response from some.

16 5. Perceived facilitators Parents role modeling For the Catholic teaching, parents are the primary teachers of the children. People have to understand that the example they give in their homes are going to go down to their kids. You instruct the parent first. Then they ll instruct the children, and I guarantee you they ll get the message down.

17 6. Program ideas Nutrition classes Academic tutoring Health screening/health fairs Physical activity Bilingual programming Childcare Follow through

18 Summary The Latino faith-based communities are aware of and willing to address childhood obesity among their congregations

19 Acknowledgements The study is funded the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Gratitude to The Salud America Tea, members of the grant review committee and the Pilot-Investigator National Advisory Committee Special thanks to participating faith-based community leaders and members

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