# Obesity Prevention in Head Start: The Miranos! Program

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS SAN ANTONIO · 2020 · $645,077

## Abstract

Abstract
The prevalence of obesity remains high in American children aged 2-5 while one in three Head Start children is
overweight or obese. The proposed study is designed to test the efficacy of an early childhood obesity
prevention program, “Obesity Prevention in Head Start: The Míranos! Program”, which promotes healthy
growth in predominantly Latino children in Head Start. The Míranos! includes center-based (policy changes,
staff development, gross motor program, and nutrition education) and home-based (parent engagement/
education and home visits) interventions to address key enablers and barriers in obesity prevention in young
children. In partnership with Head Start, we have demonstrated the feasibility and acceptability of the
proposed interventions to influence energy-balance-related behaviors favorably in Head Start children.
Using a three-arm cluster randomized design, 21 Head Start centers in equal number will be randomly
assigned to one of three conditions: 1) a combined center- and home-based intervention, 2) center-based
intervention only, or 3) control. The interventions will be delivered during the academic year (an 8-month
period). A total of 525 3-year-old children (52% females; n=25 per center at baseline) will be enrolled in the
study and followed prospectively one year post intervention. Data collection will be conducted at baseline,
immediate post-intervention, and 1-year follow-up and include height, weight, physical activity (PA) and
sedentary behaviors by accelerometry, parent-reports of sleep duration and TV watching time, gross motor
development, dietary intakes and food and activity preferences. Information on family background, parental
weight, PA- and nutrition-related practices and behaviors, PA and nutrition policy and environment at center
and home, intervention program costs, and treatment fidelity will also be collected. The study has three specific
aims: 1) to test the efficacy of the Míranos! intervention on healthy weight growth (primary outcome) in
normal weight, overweight and obese children, 2) to test the impact of the Míranos! intervention on children's
PA, sedentary behavior, sleep, and dietary behaviors (secondary outcomes), and 3) to evaluate cost-
effectiveness of the Míranos! intervention.
With endorsement of a large local Head Start administrator and a multi-disciplinary research team, the
Míranos!, a culturally tailored obesity prevention program, is poised to provide evidence of a policy and
environmental approach to prevent early onset of obesity and its cost-effectiveness in low-income Latino
preschool children. By targeting multiple behaviors at different levels of influence and in multiple settings, the
Míranos! holds great promise of developing long-term health habits that reduce the energy imbalance gap by
targeting multiple energy-balance-related behaviors. The Míranos! can be disseminated to various organized
child care settings since it is built on Head Start program and its infrastructu...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10003235
- **Project number:** 5R01DK109323-05
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS SAN ANTONIO
- **Principal Investigator:** DEBORAH PARRA-MEDINA
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $645,077
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2016-09-20 → 2023-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10003235

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10003235, Obesity Prevention in Head Start: The Miranos! Program (5R01DK109323-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10003235. Licensed CC0.

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