# SANOS (SAlud y Nutricion para todOS)

> **NIH NIH R01** · SLOAN-KETTERING INST CAN RESEARCH · 2020 · $871,263

## Abstract

Project Summary
SANOS (SAlud y Nutrición para todOS) (Health and Nutrition for All) addresses the obesity crisis among
Hispanics, the largest, fastest growing U.S. minority and immigrant group at 53 million, 17% of the total U.S.
population. Mexicans are the largest U.S. Hispanic population; nearly two-thirds of Hispanics originate from
Mexico. Obesity and its associated health consequences disproportionately affect minority populations;
Hispanics, and particularly Mexican Americans, are among the highest risk groups. 78.3% of U.S. Mexican
women and 81.9% of U.S. Mexican men are overweight or obese, compared to 60.9% of non-Hispanic White
women and 73.2% of non-Hispanic White men. Obesity is a shared risk for both cardiovascular disease (and
its risk factors) and cancer. While there is much evidence on effective multicomponent lifestyle interventions in
non-minority populations (e.g. Diabetes Prevention Program and Action for Health in Diabetes (Look AHEAD)),
these programs are considered too expensive and burdensome to be widely disseminated. There is a paucity
of data on how to optimize such approaches for hard-to-reach communities such as Hispanic immigrants. Most
weight-loss interventions have been less successful with ethnic minorities, including Hispanics. There is a
pressing need to design optimized lifestyle interventions for minority populations, particularly in accessible
community settings, that reduce participant burden and costs but retain essential intervention components for
meaningful weight loss. SANOS is the first study to use the Multiphase Optimization Strategy (MOST), an
innovative methodological framework, to address this gap. Ventanillas de Salud (VDS; Health Windows) is a
bi-national collaborative program between the Mexican government and over 400 non-profit and private
agencies, working to increase access to health care and promote healthy lifestyle choices among low-income
U.S. Latinos. In 2016, the VDS purchased a mobile van, outfitting the vehicle with space to provide consular
services and to conduct health screenings (“VDS Mobile”) in NYC neighborhoods with large Mexican
populations. SANOS components were developed from a pilot program at the NY VDS; in this application we
propose testing these components at VDS Mobile to reach the most marginalized. The overall objective of
SANOS is to use MOST to design, for the first time, an optimized version of a scalable, culturally and
linguistically tailored diet and lifestyle intervention for U.S. Mexicans. In the proposed research we will identify
which of 4 obesity intervention components contribute most to decreasing weight by 5% from baseline (primary
outcome) among overweight or obese individuals at 6 months post-intake. Components include: i) Initial in-
person individual diet and exercise counseling; ii) Thrice weekly diet and exercise text messages; iii) Weekly
telephone support; and iv) Self-monitoring tools. Secondary outcomes include improvements in BMI, waist
ci...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9899115
- **Project number:** 5R01MD012819-03
- **Recipient organization:** SLOAN-KETTERING INST CAN RESEARCH
- **Principal Investigator:** Jennifer CF Leng
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $871,263
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-09-01 → 2023-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9899115

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9899115, SANOS (SAlud y Nutricion para todOS) (5R01MD012819-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9899115. Licensed CC0.

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