The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says children and adults have gained weight during the pandemic, stressing that obesity worsens COVID-19 outcomes. However, a recent Mayo Clinic community-based pilot study suggests that weight gain can be prevented and perhaps reversed — even during a pandemic — with the help and support of a person's community.
Read MoreMayo Clinic and the University of Minnesota recently announced the launch of the Center for Chronic Disease Reduction and Equity Promotion Across Minnesota, also known as C2DREAM. The new research center aims to address the effects of racism on heart health.
Read MoreSomali and Latino immigrants lost weight when they worked together in culturally specific groups and received coaching by someone from their community. The Mayo Clinic’s pilot study was such a success it’s being replicated on a larger scale.
Read MoreThe task force actually made a difference in messaging the necessary information to affected communities but also in talking to Mayo Clinic by allowing Mayo Clinic to establish a site where they didn't have to go through an appointment with the doctor," says Rochester Healthy Community Partnership member Ahmed Osman.
Other Rochester Community Partnership members including Miriam Goodson believe more needs to be done to help people.
Read More“We just got so many questions from the community, and we decided we have to do something for them,” RHCP Communication Leader Luz Molina said. “It was about how to reach out to them and create the culturally appropriate messaging that will help them in terms of understanding what was going on at that time,” RHCP Communication Leader Ahmed Osman said.
Read MoreResults from the study indicated that this community-driven approach led to beneficial systems and policy changes that improved health equity for the communities.
Read MoreRochester, Minn. — As the COVID-19 pandemic takes more lives each day across the U.S., public health officials report that racial and ethnic minorities are disproportionately impacted.
Read More“What we realized when the pandemic hit in spades in March was that with long-established partnerships we were uniquely positioned to leverage” trust built up over the years between Mayo experts and their community partners, said Dr. Mark Wieland, who helps direct the group and studies the impact of such partnerships. “We realized we were obligated to jump in with two feet.”
Read More"Americans' trust in institutions, public health and healthcare is at an all-time low, and some of that is certainly justifiable, particularly as it relates to legacies of racism in some of those institutions in certain eras," Dr. Wieland said. "So, an authentic process of community engagement which fosters trust before any problem needs to be solved or before any funding comes to the table— those can be particularly powerful."
Read More"We know that when we can provide the right information in a linguistically and culturally competent manner, we are more likely to reach otherwise harder to serve populations which is critical in the fight against COVID-19," says Irene Sia, M.D., Infectious Diseases. Dr. Sia, together with Mark Wieland, M.D., Community Internal Medicine, leads a community-engaged research partnership and uses a community-based participatory research approach to managing the pandemic in Rochester.
Read More"It really goes back to social determinants of health," says Mayo Clinic's Dr. Mark Wieland. "People from minority households and immigrant households are more likely to live in multi-generational homes, more likely to have to go to work as essential workers, more likely to be in jobs that have the highest risks for COVID transmission and more reliant on public transportation."
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