Our Research Focus Heading link
The Midwest Roybal Center for Health Promotion and Translation supports the design and testing of principle-driven, potent health promotion interventions that have strong promise of progressing through the NIH Stage Change Model. The Center continues to focus on designing interventions for older racial/ethnic minority adults but expands our focus to include cognitive health. The Center targets four thematic areas of focus to improve cognitive function, namely:
♦ Physical activity engagement and maintenance
♦ Enhancing mobility
♦ Harnessing technology to improve intervention scalability and fidelity
♦ Incorporating mechanisms of action that will sustain behavior change
Finally, the Center incorporates for the first time a Multi-modal ADRD Imaging and Connectomics Core that is enabling investigators to perform brain imaging, interpretation, and storage. The Center also promotes the uniform use across funded pilots of cognitive and physical activity measures from the NIH Toolbox; thereby, enabling the comparison of common outcomes across diverse samples and interventions.
Robert Motl, PhD Heading link
Robert Motl, PhD
College of Applied Health Sciences
Email: robmotl@uic.edu
Behavioral Intervention for Lifestyle Physical Activity in Parkinson’s Disease
Stage-I RCT of a remotely-delivered, SCT-based behavioral intervention focusing on participation in lifestyle physical activity (LPA) for yielding increases in device-measured PA (primary outcome) and improvements in cognitive function, symptoms, and QOL (secondary outcomes) among physically inactive persons with Parkinson’s disease.
Susan Aguinaga, PhD Heading link
Susan Aguiñaga, PhD
College of Applied Health Sciences, UIUC
Email: saguina2@illinois.edu
Latinos Increasing Fuerza through Exercise & Diet (LIFTED)
RCT among Latina women ages 40-64 with CVD risk factors to compare the efficacy of a culturally tailored Mediterranean-Dash Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay (MIND) diet plus Latin dance program plus strength training program compared to a culturally tailored MIND diet plus Latin dance program on CVD risk factors, MIND diet adherence, PA, cognitive performance, and psychological distress.