# Population-level interventions and community environment effects on child obesity disparities

> **NIH NIH R01** · SAN FRANCISCO STATE UNIVERSITY · 2022 · $619,739

## Abstract

Background and significance: Obesity rates remain high, despite nationwide declines and plateaus in the
overall prevalence of obesity among some groups. Crucially, Black and Latino children have higher obesity
rates than non-Hispanic Whites (hereafter “disparities”). Effective strategies to reduce child obesity and
disparities could significantly contribute to population health improvements and reductions in racial/ethnic
health disparities. Nutrition policies—those that regulate the nutritional content of foods and beverages in
schools, including the so-called “competitive” foods because they are sold separately from school meals—
could play a key role in the primary prevention of obesity and related chronic diseases. The effect of nutrition
policies however, can be strengthened or weakened by the community food environment near schools (e.g.,
through children’s access, purchases and consumption of unhealthy foods). No studies have yet examined the
combined influences of multiple nutrition policies and community food environments on child obesity and
disparities. Objectives: This quasi-experimental study is responsive to the NIH Obesity Strategic Plan and
proposes to: (1) determine the obesity effects of the California nutrition policy improving and limiting access to
“competitive” foods/beverages together with the recent federal policy to improve school meal nutrition
standards; and (2) investigate whether community food environments modify the effect nutrition policies on
obesity and related disparities. Innovation. The study: (a) improves causal inferences about the effects of
nutrition policies on obesity and disparities using rigorous, complementary methods (interrupted time series
design, propensity scores, and latent class analysis, GIS); (b) simultaneously investigates the obesity effects of
the nutrition policies and the surrounding school food environment; and (c) uses a longitudinal, robust (>16
million) population-based data containing objective individual-level BMI measures of diverse children (51%
Latino, 6% Black, 33% White, 8% Asian) linked with the community food environments of all the public schools
to which children attended in California from 2001 to 2017.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10322101
- **Project number:** 5R01HL136718-05
- **Recipient organization:** SAN FRANCISCO STATE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Brisa N Sanchez
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $619,739
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-03-01 → 2023-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10322101

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10322101, Population-level interventions and community environment effects on child obesity disparities (5R01HL136718-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10322101. Licensed CC0.

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