Elva M Arredondo
San Diego State University, CA·Public Health & Epidemiology·Early-career
Many proven health programs never reach the communities that need them most. Few girls and few Latina women get enough physical activity, and racial and ethnic minority groups bear a heavier burden of heart disease.
- Fields
Public Health & Epidemiology
Psychology
Social Science
- Topics
physical activity
implementation science
health disparities
- Grants
- 4 known grants, through Mar 2029
What they work on
- Test whether the Conmigo mother-daughter program increases moderate-to-vigorous physical activity in girls aged 8–11, using a cluster randomized trial in 18 schools with accelerometer measurements over 15 months.
- Examine whether changes in mothers' own activity and in mother-daughter communication explain program effects, and how mothers and daughters influence each other, among 216 mother-daughter pairs.
- Evaluate implementation outcomes of the Conmigo program delivered through 9 YMCAs and their partner schools, using interviews and surveys to find barriers and facilitators to wider adoption.
- Test whether training church leaders, tailoring messages and empowering promotoras (community health workers) improve organizational uptake of the Faith in Action program, in a three-arm randomized trial across 32 faith-based organizations.
- Measure the reach and effect of the enhanced Faith in Action program on physical activity among 812 Latinas, and test whether community collaborations and technical support help churches keep the program going.
- Assess three new sustainability strategies and their mechanisms for keeping a church-based physical activity program in place, using mixed methods, while mentoring trainees from underrepresented groups.
More about the research
This research asks how to deliver and sustain physical activity programs through trusted community settings: schools, YMCAs and churches. It also asks which organizational strategies help these programs work and last. The projects combine randomized trials with implementation science, the study of how evidence-based programs are adopted and maintained in the real world. They also include mentoring and faculty recruitment that build capacity for this research.
Why it matters
This work targets gaps in physical activity and cardiovascular health among lower-income girls, Latinas and other racial and ethnic minority communities. By testing which school, YMCA and church-based strategies help activity programs take hold and last, the projects could give community organizations practical, evidence-based models for scaling up programs that may reduce chronic disease in underserved communities.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Mentoring trainees from diverse backgrounds in community engaged research to promote cardiovascular health
NIH · Apr 2024 – Mar 2029
The Recruitment Core of SDSU HealthLINK Center for Transdisciplinary Health Disparities Research
NIH · Sep 2018 – Mar 2029
Enhancing capacity in faith-based organizations to implement and sustain multilevel innovations to improve physical activity
NIH · Mar 2022 – Feb 2027
Closest labs
Sheldon Riklon
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, AR·Public Health & Epidemiology
Test whether Ājjmuurur Baamḷe, a family-model diabetes self-management program, improves HbA1c, blood pressure, lipids, BMI, and self-efficacy among Marshallese patients, in a cluster randomized trial delivered by community health workers in faith-based organizations.
Lauren Haack
University of California-San Francisco, CA·Psychology
Test whether students in schools using CLS-A-FUERTE, a school clinician training and ADHD/ODD intervention program, improve more in parent- and teacher-rated symptoms than students receiving usual services, in a cluster randomized trial across 40 Mexican schools.
Juliet Iwelunmor
Washington University in St Louis, MO·Public Health & Epidemiology
Develop youth-designed HPV vaccine campaigns using open calls, designathons and apprenticeships, then test whether they raise first-dose uptake among girls aged 9–15 in a stepped-wedge trial across 32 Nigerian communities.
The school
San Diego State University: 13 labs on PI Pages, $182M a year on research, 142 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
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