# Mobile Health App to Reduce Diabetes in Latina Women with Prior Gestational Diabetes

> **NIH NIH R44** · ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH GROUP, INC. · 2020 · $184,794

## Abstract

Abstract
 Latino communities have been disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, being both at
increased risk and experiencing more severe illness when infected. Latinos living in Puerto Rico have also
been affected via access to healthy food. Even before the pandemic, access to healthy food had been
threatened due to the unprecedented series of natural disasters, including Hurricane Maria in 2017. The onset
of COVID-19 has further threatened access to healthy food. Relatedly, social distancing rules, which limit
access to beaches, parks and public recreation areas to prevent unhealthy crowding in these spaces, may
have a greater negative impact on low-income Puerto Ricans who rely on these spaces for physical activity.
While public health recommendations for healthy shopping, healthy eating, and physical exercise during
COVID-19 have emerged, these recommendations have not targeted to Latinos nor are they available in
Spanish. Puerto Ricans would benefit from targeted healthy shopping and eating guidance due to the
widespread food insecurity and poverty that already existed prior to COVID-19, and physical activity guidance
due to the COVID-19 related constraints to outdoor physical activity.
 Digital technology, which is widely used by Puerto Rico residents, is a way to help families engage in
healthy behaviors in the face of COVID-19, as it overcomes barriers by providing behavioral tools on healthy
food shopping and food preparation, and providing ways to increase physical activity. Tailoring this
information to Latinas, who typically manage shopping and food preparation in Latino families, would
increase its impact. To our knowledge, no digital health intervention has been specifically targeted to, and
co-designed with Latinas to promote healthy food shopping, healthy eating, and physical activity during
COVID-19. While such an intervention has potential value for many Latino subgroups, Puerto Ricans
represent a high-priority target because of pre-existing vulnerabilities brought about by several natural
disasters that preceded COVID-19.
 The overall goal of this competitive supplement is to develop a culturally- and individually-tailored Spanish/
English digital health intervention to promote healthy food shopping and healthy eating, as well as physical
activity, among Puerto Rican Latinas during the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath. This competitive
revision expands the scope of our current SBIR Phase II parent grant (Hola Bebé), which is building and
testing a digital health intervention with tools for healthy eating and physical activity for Latinas with a prior
history of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM), as well as builds on our SBIR Phase I project (LISTA), which
developed tools for healthy shopping and eating for Latinas. We are committed to the rapid dissemination of
the mobile app during the pandemic and its aftermath, to Latina users of community health centers throughout
Puerto Rico, as well as other sites where ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10193260
- **Project number:** 3R44MD009454-04S1
- **Recipient organization:** ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH GROUP, INC.
- **Principal Investigator:** Dharma E CORTES
- **Activity code:** R44 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $184,794
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2014-07-22 → 2023-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10193260

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10193260, Mobile Health App to Reduce Diabetes in Latina Women with Prior Gestational Diabetes (3R44MD009454-04S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10193260. Licensed CC0.

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