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for carrying that extra weight into adulthood, bringing a myriad of
co-morbidities such as diabetes, hypertension and stroke, heart dis-
ease, kidney disease, as well as other nerve and retinal damage.
The IHPR’s Salud America! The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
(RWJF) Research Network to Prevent Obesity Among Latino Children
program connects and informs researchers, community leaders, deci-
sion-makers and other stakeholders targeting Latino childhood obesity.
Since 2007, its Salud America! has developed an online network of
50,000-plus Latino childhood obesity stakeholders and the first-ever
Latino Childhood Obesity Research Priority Agenda. In March 2013,
it published a special supplement in the American Journal of Preventive and 10,000 followers. Visitors also can find videos, recipes, articles
Medicine. The network’s new Salud America! Growing Healthy
Change website serves as a clearinghouse of Latino-focused news,
maps, resources and Salud Heroes stories to promote healthy changes
in communities for Latino kids across the nation.
IHPR research has shown that Latino children are specifically tar-
geted by ads for sugary drinks and also have less access to healthy
food choices and to “active spaces,” such as parks and playgrounds
for exercise. With that in mind, they created a pilot study – funded
by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) – that did
not promote weight loss specifically, but instead targeted a rate of
30 San Antonio Medicine • August 2015
weight gain consistent with healthy growth and development. Based
on the results of that pilot study, IHPR researchers successfully com-
peted for a five-year, $2.9 million grant from the Eunice Kennedy
Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
to study this intervention on a larger scale. I believe this will be an-
other of IHPR’s successful demonstrations of how using patient nav-
igation strategies and healthy lifestyles can have a significant impact
on a patient population.
The IHPR has stayed very much on the forefront of communica-
tions and social media trends, employing the latest in social media
including Facebook, YouTube and Twitter to blogging and infograph-
ics. Its blog at SaludToday.com has more than 35,000 subscribers
and other relevant health information and resources, including a
downloadable cookbook in English and Spanish. The IHPR also has
developed various award-winning publications, including Nuestas
Historias/Our Stories: Hispanic Women Surviving Breast Cancer
(Historias), A Patient Navigator Manual for Latino Audiences: The
Redes En Acción Experience (Patient Navigator Manual), and Clin-
ical Trials Outreach for Latinos Program Replication Manual
(CTOL).