Childhood Obesity Prevention Across Borders: The Promise of US-Latin American Research Collaboration

Results

Special Issue: Obesity Prevention Across Borders: The Promise of US-Latin American Research Collaboration

Fogarty coordinated a peer-reviewed scientific journal supplement, Childhood Obesity Prevention Research Across Borders: The Promise of US-Latin American Research Collaboration, published in Obesity Review that explores nine cross-cutting themes and articulates a shared research agenda to address childhood obesity prevention in Latin America and among Latino populations in the United States. The supplement harnesses a particular layer of the Community-Energy Balance Framework to understand the contextual influences that define the problem, the current research landscape, and the opportunities for cross-border learning. In addition, it details the measurement challenges, research capacity needs, and chemical exposures that cut across the field. Finally, the supplement identifies innovative methods and scientific tools that could advance the development and delivery of interventions that require multi-sector collaboration. The supplement is also available in Spanish: Prevención transfronteriza de la obesidad infantil: la promesa de colaboración entre EE. UU. y Latinoamérica en la investigación.

A factsheet of the supplement’s background, articles, and themes can be found here. Leer una hoja informativa sobre la iniciativa de investigación Prevención transfronteriza de la obesidad infantil.

Presentations

The National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity Research (NCCOR), in collaboration with CGHS, hosted the Childhood Obesity Research Across Borders webinar series in June and July 2021. The first webinar discussed how social determinants of health, specifically in terms of migration and the social environment, influence childhood obesity in the United States and Latin America. The second addressed how policy changes and citizen science can influence childhood obesity prevention programs in the United States and Latin America. Recordings of the webinar and slides can be found here:

• Childhood Obesity Research Across Borders: Social Determinants of Health, June 17, 2021
  

• Childhood Obesity Research Across Borders: The Physical Environment, July 20, 2021
  

Workshop

The two-day workshop highlighted synergies between research conducted in Latin America and among Latino populations in the U.S., focusing on six cross-cutting areas: social environment; built environment; migration; implementation science; measures; and capacity building. The meeting addressed the need to accelerate the adaptation and implementation of proven interventions, including program and policy strategies across the Americas. It explored the promise and challenges of working in both regions; collaboration strategies; and how to stimulate a sustainable network of researchers.

Cross border collaborative awards

To further support the development of new research partnerships between countries to address childhood obesity prevention, CRDF Global on behalf of Fogarty solicited 2020 Cross Border Collaboration Award proposals. These travel, conference and capacity building awards for up to $10,000 USD each are intended to promote new collaborations between U.S. and Latin American investigators as well as among investigators across different Latin American countries to catalyze new science and expand capacity in performing high-quality childhood obesity research.

Applications closed on February 28, 2020.

• Understanding the effect of movement behaviors on childhood obesity and cognitive development in early childhood: establishing a cross-national collaborative
  Location: Brazil, Chile, Mexico
  Principal Investigator: Alejandra Jáuregui, Instituto Nacional de Salud

• The food retail environment and its use in US-Mexico border sister cities
  Location: Mexico, United States
  Principal Investigator: Sara Benjamin-Neelon, Johns Hopkins University

• Transferring the experience of Chile and Mexico to inform implementation of effective strategies to reduce childhood obesity in Costa Rica
  Location: Chile, Costa Rica, Mexico
  Principal Investigator: Rafael Monge-Rojas, Costa Rican Institute for Research

• Cross-border approaches to applying novel methods for child obesity research
  Location: Chile, Mexico, United States
  Principal Investigator: Karen Peterson, University of Michigan

• Building healthy environments through children-engaged citizen science in Latin American countries
  Location: Brazil, Chile, Columbia, United States
  Principal Investigator: Olga Sarmiento, Universidad de Los Andes

• Crossing Three Borders: Pediatric Obesity and the Dual Burden in Ecuador, Peru and the United States
  Location: Ecuador, Peru, United States
  Principal Investigator: Amanda Thompson, University of North Carolina

• Binational collaboration to reduce childhood obesity among underserved children
  Location: Mexico, United States
  Principal Investigator: Noe Crespo, San Diego State University

• San Diego- Tijuana cross-border conference to build regional collaboration for childhood obesity prevention
  Location: Mexico, United States
  Principal Investigator: Hala Madanat, San Diego State University

• In-store features and parent-child interactions associations with ultra-processed foods in purchase
  Location: Brazil, United States
  Principal Investigator: Ana Clara Duran, University of Campinas

• Precision nutrition in childhood obesity: Principles and approaches
  Location: Mexico, United States
  Principal Investigator: Venkata Saroja, University of North Carolina

• Intersections between adolescent fertility and obesity - Seeking preventive synergistic solutions
  Location: Brazil, United States
  Principal Investigator: Saionara Câmara, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte

• Policy Diffusion and Implementation of Frontal-of-packaging Warning Labels in Chile: Lessons to Prevent Childhood Obesity in the U.S. and Other Latin American Countries
  Location: Chile, United States
  Principal Investigator: Arturo Bustamante, University of California, Los Angeles

• Designing a systems science approach to address sugary beverage availability in schools in Guatemala City
  Location: Guatemala, United States
  Principal Investigator: Uriyoan Colon-Ramos, George Washington University

NIH Partners

• National Cancer Institute (NCI)
• National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI)
• National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive, and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)
• Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute on Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
• National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD)
• NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR)
• NIH Office of Disease Prevention (ODP)

Scientific Co-chairs

• Rafael Perez-Escamilla, Yale University
• Abby King, Stanford University

Inquiries

Susan Vorkoper, M.P.H., M.S.W.
Public Health Advisor
Fogarty Division of International Science Policy, Planning and Evaluation
Email: Susan.Vorkoper@nih.gov

Updated May 26, 2023