Public release date: 3-Oct-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Sarah Anderson sanderson@ph.ucla.edu 310-267-0440 University of California - Los Angeles

Researchers at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center have been awarded a $20 million federal grant to further their innovative efforts to curb obesity, a global pandemic that has reached the level of a national crisis in the United States.

The UCLA project, rather than requiring busy, stressed individuals in low-resource neighborhoods to seek out physical activity and nutrient-rich foods, will engage them as "captive" audiences in settings they already frequent including schools, offices and churches making healthier options a default that can only be avoided with effort or by "opting out."

The five-year grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is intended to address health disparities among racial and ethnic groups across the country and is part of the agency's Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) initiative.

The UCLA project will be led by Dr. Antronette Yancey and Roshan Bastani, professors of health policy and management at the Fielding School and co-directors of the school's UCLA Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Equity. Other faculty members on the team include assistant professor Beth Glenn, professor Annette Maxwell and professor William J. McCarthy, all of the school's department of health policy and management.

For more than 20 years, UCLA has been recognized as a leader in promoting health among a diverse array of ethnic groups in a variety of settings, with programs that address critical health issues ranging from obesity and tobacco control to cancer screening and vaccinations. This work is conducted in partnership with several hundred community-based organizations, primarily in the Los Angeles region.

The new CDC funding enables the researchers to build on knowledge gained from their prior work and to expand the geographic scope of their efforts. They will concentrate on promoting healthy nutrition and physical activity in 30 to 40 medium- to large-sized cities throughout the U.S. Southeast, Midwest and Southwest, focusing on geographic hubs in those metropolitan areas where ethnic or racial minorities make up the majority of residents.

The program will be disseminated through national networks of community-based organizations, allowing the program to reach large segments of the African American, Asian American/Pacific Islander, Hispanic/Latino and American Indian populations in these urban centers.

The core of the program is Yancey's "Instant Recess," which she developed nearly 14 years ago to help prevent obesity and promote health and well-being. "Instant Recess" focuses on integrating short physical-activity breaks into non-discretionary time during non-P.E. time in school, "paid time" at work and Sunday church services, for example and establishing policies to ensure that appealing healthy options are accessible whenever food is served at meetings or gatherings, in cafeterias, or in vending machines.

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UCLA public health researchers get $20M grant to promote health and fitness, fight obesity