# Family-based eHealth Obesity Prevention Intervention for Hispanic Adolescents

> **NIH NIH K01** · UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI SCHOOL OF MEDICINE · 2021 · $164,786

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
The purpose of this five year K01 application is to prepare Dr. Sara M. St. George for an independent research
career devoted to developing, evaluating, and disseminating innovative, evidence-based obesity prevention
interventions for Hispanic adolescents. This project contains three training goals: 1) To advance Dr. St.
George's understanding of cultural factors that contribute to obesity and related health behaviors in Hispanic
adolescents; 2) To develop her expertise in the design of behavioral intervention technologies (i.e., those that
use technologies such as mobile phones to promote behavior change), including the use of human
factors/user-centered design approaches to incorporate user perspectives into intervention development; and
3) To enhance Dr. St. George's ability to apply advanced quantitative methods for evaluating randomized
controlled trials. To achieve these goals, Dr. St. George has assembled an interdisciplinary mentoring team
with expertise in public health, psychology, human factors engineering, behavioral intervention technology, and
quantitative methods. Given the paucity of research on family-based obesity prevention interventions in
Hispanic adolescents as well as data indicating Hispanics are most likely to access the internet from
smartphones, Dr. St. George's research will focus on developing and pilot testing a family-based intervention
that uses the web and mobile phones (eHealth) to improve the physical activity, sedentary behavior, and diet of
Hispanic adolescents. Two research aims are proposed: 1) To conduct formative research which will inform the
development of a family-based eHealth obesity prevention intervention for improving moderate-to-vigorous
physical activity, sedentary behavior, and dietary intake in Hispanic adolescents; and 2) To conduct a pilot
randomized trial to determine the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effects of the intervention. To
accomplish Aim 1, Dr. St. George will involve Hispanic parents and adolescents in all stages of the design
process by: 1a) conducting four focus groups with 20 Hispanic parents and adolescents; 1b) developing and
iteratively testing visual mockups (“paper prototypes”) of the intervention with three groups of 5 Hispanic
parent-adolescent dyads; 1c) developing a fully functional intervention prototype; and 1d) conducting a field
trial with 10 Hispanic parent-adolescent dyads using the fully functional prototype. To accomplish Aim 2, Dr. St.
George will recruit and randomize 50 parent-adolescent dyads from pediatric primary care clinics to a family-
based eHealth obesity prevention intervention or a primary care as usual comparison condition. It is
hypothesized that the intervention will be feasible, acceptable, and show promising effects compared to
primary care as usual in increasing moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, reducing sedentary behavior, and
improving quality dietary intake in adolescents at post intervention an...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9976568
- **Project number:** 5K01HL133521-05
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
- **Principal Investigator:** Sara Mijares St. George
- **Activity code:** K01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $164,786
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2016-08-19 → 2022-10-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9976568

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9976568, Family-based eHealth Obesity Prevention Intervention for Hispanic Adolescents (5K01HL133521-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9976568. Licensed CC0.

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