Home-visit heart-health support for mothers and young children in Alabama
ENRICH ALABAMA: Improving cardiovascular health of women and children through a novel home visiting intervention
This program offers home-visit coaching to help high-risk mothers and their children (ages 0–4) in Alabama improve heart health and prevent childhood obesity over several years.
Quick facts
| Grant type | NIH-funded research |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | University of Alabama at Birmingham NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Birmingham, United States) |
| Project ID | NIH-11128543 on NIH RePORTER |
What this research studies
If you join, you and your young child would receive extra support on heart-healthy habits during routine home visits. The team plans to enroll about 500–600 mother–child pairs from five home visiting programs serving 39 Alabama counties. The program adds behavioral coaching focused on maternal and child cardiovascular health and obesity prevention, and families will be followed for about three years. Researchers will also examine how well the program can be delivered within existing home visiting services so it could be expanded if helpful.
Who could benefit from this research
Good fit: Ideal candidates are high-risk mothers and their child aged 0–4 who are enrolled in one of the participating home visiting programs in Alabama.
Not a fit: People who are not enrolled in the participating home visiting programs, whose children are outside the 0–4 age range, or who do not face cardiovascular risk factors are unlikely to receive direct benefit from this project.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, the program could help mothers and young children lower long-term heart disease risk and reduce early childhood obesity through support delivered at home.
How similar studies have performed: Related home-visiting and early childhood obesity-prevention programs have shown promising results in improving family health, but this ENRICH-AL approach is a larger, newly scaled test in Alabama.
Where this research is happening
Birmingham, United States
- University of Alabama at Birmingham — Birmingham, United States (Active)
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Dutton, Gareth R — University of Alabama at Birmingham
- Study coordinator: Dutton, Gareth R
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page below.