Immigrants often arrive to Minnesota with healthier cardiovascular risk profiles than the general population, but these health advantages disappear over time, and rates of obesity quickly increase. Accumulation of cardiovascular risk is precipitated, in part, by systemic factors that promote the adoption of unhealthy behaviors after immigration; namely a sedentary lifestyle and consumption of calorie dense foods. Yet few strategies exist to effectively promote health behavior change in immigrant communities, and clinical health promotion programs are often difficult to access or utilize by patients with limited English proficiency. 

The objective of Project 1 is to leverage existing social networks for health behavior change relevant to obesity and cardiovascular risk among immigrant populations in Southeast MN. In this project our team proposed to build on the prior success of WellConnect, a robust infrastructure developed by a member of our team for implementing multi-level evidence-based health promotion programs and integrating them within health care systems, tailoring these programs to the needs of immigrant communities. To achieve our objective, Rochester Healthy Community Partnership (RHCP) will test the efficacy of this social network intervention within WellConnect and evaluate its potential dissemination and sustainability.