# CRISOL: Building Community Resilience and Integrating Efforts to Understand and Address Syndemic Health Conditions Afflicting Young LatinoImmigrants

> **NIH NIH R21** · DREXEL UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $364,111

## Abstract

This goal of this competitive revision is to expand our original project to adapt, implement and evaluate a multi-
level intervention to mitigate the multi-dimensional toll of COVID19 among Latino immigrant communities in
Philadelphia. Evidence of effective strategies to curb the pandemic, reduce disparities and mitigate its impact
is lacking and very urgent. In the US, Latino immigrants are one of the groups hardest hit by this pandemic,
with recent steep increases in COVID-19 deaths among this group corroborating their continued increased risk
of infection and increased susceptibility. Latino immigrants have long exhibited disparities in diabetes, obesity
and hypertension, factors known to increase COVID-19 related severity, and also in Substance Abuse,
Violence exposure, HIV/AIDS, and MEntal health (SAVAME) syndemic. These syndemic conditions have been
worsened in the context of COVID-19. Latino immigrants represent a hard-to-reach and marginalized
population, with extremely limited access to adequate health care and safety nets. This group faces many
structural barriers, and social vulnerabilities, that hinder their capacity to access COVID-19 testing and
treatment services and to adhere to public health interventions and measures to decrease the spread of
COVID-19. Latinos often rely on a thin and fragmented network of health and social services organizations.
Intervention to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on this population will need to have a broad stakeholder
engagement and address a wide range of health determinants. Peer-driven interventions have been effective
for the prevention and control of infectious diseases such as HIV, STIs among Latino populations.
Strengthening the links between community members and these organizations and promoting inter-
organizational coordination to meet syndemic health, behavioral, economic, and legal needs of Latino
communities are essential elements to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on this low-resource population. In
direct response to the NOT-MD-20-022/PAR PA-18-935, our ongoing community-academic partnership
proposes to evaluate “CRISOL Contigo,” a multi-level intervention to address the needs created or magnified
by the COVID-19 pandemic among Latino communities in Philadelphia. CRISOL Contigo includes a peer-
driven program and mobilization of Latino-serving organizations. In aim 1, we will adapt an ongoing Popular
Opinion Leader (POL) program to address the unique health, social, and economic needs related to COVID-19
and the SAVAME syndemic. In aim 2, we will assess the efficacy of CRISOL Contigo to improve COVID-19
related preventive health behaviors and use and access to COVID-19 related testing and care (co-primary
outcomes). In aim 3, we will examine the impact of CRISOL Contigo on community assets, interagency
collaborations and coordination among the Latino-serving organizations in Philadelphia. There are almost 20
million Latino immigrants in the US, and they play a central role in sust...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10217529
- **Project number:** 3R21MD012352-02S1
- **Recipient organization:** DREXEL UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Ana P Martinez-Donate
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $364,111
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2019-03-01 → 2022-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10217529

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10217529, CRISOL: Building Community Resilience and Integrating Efforts to Understand and Address Syndemic Health Conditions Afflicting Young LatinoImmigrants (3R21MD012352-02S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10217529. Licensed CC0.

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