W.O.R.K.I.N.G. Project Pilot Study
Under Construction
October 2006

Joining Forces with a Key Community to Combat Obesity Disparities
Title -- WORKING (Working Out Regularly Keeps Individuals Nurtured and Going)

Gatekeepers of healthy eating & active living in our communities

Through a community partnership, UCLA and the Los Angeles Department of Public  Health will work with health and social service organizations (public and private), that serve predominantly African American and Latino populations in a 3-year process to involve communities in developing feasible and effective strategies to promote physical activity and healthy eating in their work settings. Together, we will determine how best to integrate physical activity and healthy food choices into workplace routines.

Physical inactivity has reached epidemic proportions in the U.S.  Communities of color experience higher rates of chronic disease and obesity, lower levels of physical activity, and poorer dietary quality than white communities.  Lesser access to healthy food choices and opportunities for physical activity is a major contributor to the explosion of such chronic diseases as diabetes, stroke, cancer and heart disease among African Americans and Latinos.  

Very little intervention research has been conducted to promote healthy behaviors within ethnic minority communities.  Despite the need, ethnic minority communities have rarely served as active partners in federally funded obesity-related research.

This is a 3 year project funded by the NIH National Center for Minority Health and Health Disparities (NCMHD)

  • Principal Investigator: Antronette Yancey

  • Co-Principal Investigators: Cindy Harding (LAC DPH, Co-PI), Roshan Bastani (UCLA, Co-PI)

  • Co-Investigators: Beth Glenn, Eloisa Gonzalez (LAC DPH),  William McCarthy, Paul Simon (LAC DPH), Marjorie Kagawa-Singer, Annette Maxwell, Steven Wallace, Weng Kee Wong

Download 1-Page Project Description

 Octavia Miles, MBA
 Project Manager            
olpmiles@earthlink.net
 phone: 310-475.8675
 fax:      310.475.8648