Community-Based Participatory Research to Improve Health and Quality of Life of Latino Youth: Every Little Step Counts

With the increasing prevalence of obesity, the incidence of obesity-related co-morbidities including depression and type 2 diabetes have emerged as critical public health conditions. Furthermore, Latinos experience a disproportionately greater burden of these obesity-related disorders. Therefore, we have developed a 12-week community-based lifestyle intervention that includes weekly education sessions for children and their parents and 3 exercise sessions per week for youth. The program will be delivered at a local YMCA in the greater Phoenix Metropolitan area.