Feds spend $406,875 texting Latino men telling them to exercise
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Aug. 17, 2009: A man walks past the New York Stock Exchange after trading hours in New York. (Reuters)
The National Institutes of Health is spending more than $400,000 sending text messages to Latino men to encourage them to exercise.
The University of California, San Diego is conducting the study, which is attempting to employ the “low-cost” strategy of using cell phones to reach Mexican-Americans.
“Mexican-American men report high rates of inactivity and related health conditions. The proposed study seeks to promote physical activity among this at-risk, understudied population by developing interactive and tailored text-messages to enhance a print-based physical activity intervention for Spanish- speaking [Mexican American] MA men,” a grant for the project said. “The proposed high-reach, low-cost strategy for increasing physical activity has great potential for adoption on a larger scale and thereby positively impacting public health and eliminating health disparities.”
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Latino men “may have limited access to public health interventions promoting physical activity,” according to the project, and there is a “dearth of studies in this area.”
“To address these rising health disparities, effective interventions that leverage state-of-the-art technology, theory, and methods are needed for [Mexican-American] MA men,” the grant said.
The project is based on a preliminary study using “culturally and linguistically tailored” print campaigns to encourage Latino men to exercise.
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