Project Salsita: Developing a culturally-sensitive childhood obesity intervention within a border community health center

Project Salsita, San Ysidro Health Center's childhood obesity program, targets overweight and obese patients (5-12 years old) and their parent(s), screening participants for heart disease and diabetes risk factors and providing a culturally-sensitive, lifestyle intervention regarding diet and exercise habits. The intervention reflects the health beliefs and behaviors of the clinic's U.S./Mexico-border patient population and also addresses the influence of acculturation, i.e. that obese children are caught between 2 cultures (American and Mexican), resulting in the loss of healthy Mexican beliefs/behaviors and gain of unhealthy American beliefs/behaviors. The theoretical basis of Salsita includes the Health Belief and Transtheoretical Models. San Ysidro Health Center (SYHC) is a community health center serving south San Diego County; the main clinic is located one mile north of the U.S./Mexico border. The lessons learned from the development of Salsita's culturally-sensitive intervention will be discussed.

As community health centers (CHCs) provide access to basic primary care, and are reactive in nature, it can prove difficult to integrate a health promotion program into a CHC's infrastructure – Salsita, however, serves as a story of success as it is 100% integrated into SYHC's infrastructure. All Providers are aware of Salsita and refer most eligible children to the program; the Referral, Lab, and Follow-Up processes are fully engrained into SYHC with a minimum amount of problems/issues encountered. The lessons learned from the integration process will be discussed. Salsita is funded by a grant from Pfizer, Inc.