Butch de Castro Awarded Five Year Grant

Dr. Butch de Castro, Associate Professor of the UW Bothell School of Nursing & Health Studies, along with collaborators at the UCLA School of Public Health and the University of San Carlos Office of Population Studies (Cebu, Philippines), have been awarded a five-year grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development of the National Institutes of Health to study obesity risk in the context of international migration. This project is uniquely novel in that it examines the health trajectory of immigrants to the U.S. starting from a pre-migration baseline and prospectively in time after migration. The study will investigate whether migration and post-migration experiences (e.g., adoption of “American” behaviors, life stressors transitioning to a new country) differentially impact risk for obesity, or, if the tendency of obesity risk is already present in country of origin as a function of globalization and the marketing of “American” goods and practice worldwide. Findings from this research will offer insight into a significant global health issue as well as contribute to better understanding social determinants of health disparities.