Increasing Obesity Education in an Underserved Latino Population

Obesity is a rapidly growing health problem in the United States. Certain populations are at high risk for developing obesity including the Latino population and underserved communities. This Quality Improvement project aimed to develop a more patient centered approach for primary care providers use to deliver obesity education to an at-risk Latino population. The project was completed at a clinic in southern Illinois where the majority of the population is underserved and Spanish speaking. Obesity education tools in both Spanish and English were given to the patients in order to decrease the language barrier and improve patient education and understanding about obesity. Nineteen patients were eligible and participated in the quality improvement project based on BMI. Each completed a survey before and after they were provided with the education tools. Results of the project showed that 52.5% of the participants marked the tool as very useful, and 47.4% marked somewhat useful. No participants marked the tool as not useful. All of the participants reported an increase in obesity knowledge