SAN ANTONIO and SECAUCUS, N.J., May 24,
2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Childhood obesity has
disproportionately affected Hispanic and Black communities as a
result of negative social determinants of health for years. In the
wake of COVID-19, low-income and racial/ethnic minority families,
particularly Hispanic and African American, are struggling with an
even greater risk of health complications such as obesity,
diabetes, respiratory ailments and other predisposing conditions,
according to a report by the Centers for Disease Control.
To help address the health inequity crisis, the Social and
Health Research Center (SAHRC) of San
Antonio, Texas has developed the Bienestar/Neema
Coordinated School Health Program, an evidenced-based program
using an innovative digitized curriculum designed to engage
children and increase accessibility. The program has been
recognized by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the
National Institutes for Health (NIH).
The program is led by Dr. Roberto Treviño, M.D., a
physician and noted author who founded the SAHRC in 1995 to design
and evaluate early age obesity and type 2 diabetes school health
prevention programs. Dr. Treviño is the principal
investigator of the two largest trials funded by the National
Institutes of Health to prevent obesity and diabetes in
children.
"We worked with young animation creators, ages 16 to 24, in four
countries and the US who brought their diverse perspectives helping
us create a digital interactive platform, that is engaging for the
diverse populations that we are reaching," said Dr. Treviño. "We
have already begun to see the impact of this curriculum, as young
children are taking what they learn back to their families,
encouraging them to make healthy choices as well. Using animation
will make this program even more compelling."
SAHRC has partnered with South
Texas public schools in deploying healthcare and physical
education curriculum and workbooks to positively influence children
and their families' health behaviors to control and prevent obesity
and related chronic diseases.
"As one of the fastest growing cities in the United States, San Antonio is committed to addressing the
health needs of all of its citizens and our future generations,"
said San Antonio Mayor
Ron Nirenberg. "We are eager to help
our children develop healthy habits by moving this effort forward
with SAHRC and Quest Diagnostics. I want San Antonio to serve as a healthy lifestyle
model to expand this innovative and interactive animated platform
across the country."
Quest Diagnostics [NYSE: DGX], the world's leading
provider of testing and diagnostic insights, is collaborating with
SAHRC to bring the curriculum to schools and communities where it
is most needed, first in Texas and
then across the United States.
Quest Diagnostics and the Quest Diagnostics Foundation are
supporting this effort as part of Quest for Health Equity
(Q4HE), an initiative focused on providing resources, funding,
testing services and education to address health disparities in
underserved communities across the U.S.
"Enhancing the health and well-being of underserved communities
was a critical need before the pandemic, and is even more so
today," said Steve Rusckowski,
Chairman, CEO and President of Quest Diagnostics. "We know
childhood obesity is dramatically growing in underserved
communities and that these resources are needed throughout
the United States. Our goal is to
support the digital evolution of this powerful curriculum to make
it more appealing to today's youth and more affordable for key
school districts' adoption across the country."
Recently, SAHRC engaged Americas Council for the Creative
Economy (ACCE), a social purpose driven nonprofit company, to work
with youth creators, to convert its entire curriculum for children
from a textbook into a digital interactive animation platform,
making it more economical for school districts and more compelling
and engaging for students. The platform utilizes age-appropriate
full motion 3-D animated characters, animated sing-alongs and
tutorials, and the gamification of quizzes and tests to engage,
inform and entertain students.
"We assembled a team of over 45 former students in Argentina, Colombia, Guatemala, Jamaica and the U.S. to convert SAHRC's
curriculum, which for them has been a labor of love," said
Mark Marion, ACCE's Founder &
Commercial Director.
Through digitization of its content, the price for schools
dropped from $18,000 for the printed
version to under $1,000 for the
digitized version.
"The dramatic decrease in the cost of the curriculum makes it
accessible for school districts serving low-income communities,"
said Superintendent Pedro Martinez
of the San Antonio, Texas
Independent School District. "This puts the resource within reach
so our students can improve their health and quality of life."
The Bienestar/Neema curriculum will initially target more than
180,000 children and their families in Texas and New
Jersey. From these states, plans include reaching close to a
million students in 10 school districts in four other states in the
U.S.
About the Social and Health Research Center, Inc
The
Social and Health Research Center (SAHRC) was founded and
established by Dr. Roberto Treviño, a physician, in 1991. SAHRC was
incorporated as a non-profit organization with 501 (c) (3) status
in 1995. The center is committed to the social and health
well-being of populations most at-risk. The goals of SAHRC are to
detect and reduce obesity and its associated chronic diseases such
as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The objective is to develop
and implement Research-Tested health programs to prevent and
manage obesity and associated chronic diseases; and design
evaluation tools to assess program effectiveness.
www.SAHRC.org.
About Americas Council For The Creative Economy
(ACCE)
ACCE is a social purpose driven non-profit
established in 2014 that targets youth from disadvantaged
communities, trains them in digital content creation and connects
them to commercial production opportunities. ACCE has trained
over 2000 students throughout the Americas.
About Quest Diagnostics
Quest Diagnostics
empowers people to take action to improve health outcomes. Derived
from the world's largest database of clinical lab results,
Quest's diagnostic insights reveal new avenues to identify and
treat disease, inspire healthy behaviors and improve health
care management. Quest Diagnostics annually serves one in
three adult Americans and half the physicians and hospitals in
the United States, and our nearly
50,000 employees understand that, in the right hands and with
the right context, our diagnostic insights can inspire actions
that transform lives. www.QuestDiagnostics.com.
About Quest for Health Equity
Quest for Health
Equity is an initiative of Quest Diagnostics and the
Quest Diagnostics Foundation ), focused on providing
resources, funding, testing services and education to address
health disparities in underserved communities across the U.S.
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SOURCE Quest Diagnostics