# Building Community Capacity for Disability Prevention for Minority Elders COVID-19 supplement

> **NIH NIH R01** · MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL · 2020 · $209,766

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Previous studies have shown that major health crises and economic shocks can have negative impacts on
mental health, which are worsened when physical quarantine is required. A particularly vulnerable population
are those that have physical and emotional problems and are ethnic/racial and linguistic minority elders, many
of whom live in areas with high infection rates and lack of appropriate health resources. The ongoing impact of
the crisis on minority elders, who may take longer to recover and require longer periods of quarantine, is
essential to understand and address. Our proposed supplement extends from the Positive Minds Strong
Bodies clinical trial, that showed positive outcomes for this combined mental health and physical disability
management and prevention intervention. We seek to assess the long-term effect of this program in reducing
elders’ mortality (Aim 1) and maintaining mental health (Aim 2), as participants have been exposed to COVID-
19 or its social effects. We hypothesize that elders who received the intervention approximately 3 years ago
pre-COVID will have a lower trend for mortality than those in the control condition, after adjusting for age,
gender, and comorbidities at baseline. Our study is a unique opportunity to address disparities in a multiethnic,
multilingual sample, including Latino, Asian and Black participants in 4 languages, Spanish, Mandarin,
Cantonese and English. We propose to test whether the Positive Minds Strong Bodies intervention buffers
mental health and disability impacts, through recontact of elders who participated in the 2015-2019 trial, along
with those that will be newly enrolled in our new implementation study. In the third aim of the supplement, we
will explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on daily stressors for ethnic/racial minority elders, as well as
their responses to public health interventions such as home confinement, social distancing and isolation, mass
risk communications, disease testing, intention to vaccinate and contact tracing. The proposed supplement will
test the potential for this combined intervention to contribute to ongoing preparedness during the COVID-19
pandemic while also providing an evidence-based program that could support a diverse population in the face
of future health crises.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10170914
- **Project number:** 3R01AG046149-07A1S2
- **Recipient organization:** MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL
- **Principal Investigator:** MARGARITA ALEGRIA
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $209,766
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2014-08-15 → 2025-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10170914

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10170914, Building Community Capacity for Disability Prevention for Minority Elders COVID-19 supplement (3R01AG046149-07A1S2). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10170914. Licensed CC0.

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