{"id":206230,"date":"2023-10-27T08:07:38","date_gmt":"2023-10-27T12:07:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=206230"},"modified":"2023-10-30T14:42:57","modified_gmt":"2023-10-30T18:42:57","slug":"bringing-parkinsons-information-interventions-to-cts-hispanic-communities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2023\/10\/bringing-parkinsons-information-interventions-to-cts-hispanic-communities\/","title":{"rendered":"Bringing Parkinson\u2019s Information, Interventions to CT\u2019s Hispanic Communities"},"content":{"rendered":"

The research of Cristina Col\u00f3n-Semenza, assistant professor of kinesiology in the College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources<\/a>, wants to get people moving to improve their quality of life. As part of her work, she engages people from underrepresented groups in ways that use physical activity to mitigate symptoms and disease progression.<\/p>\n

Currently, Col\u00f3n-Semenza is working on several projects focused on reaching Hispanic people with Parkinson\u2019s disease across the United States.<\/p>\n

\"Smiling
Col\u00f3n-Semenza and her lab members at the Puerto Rican day festival, where they assessed attendees and educated them about physical therapy, exercise, and strength (Contributed photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThere is evidence that exercise, when appropriately dosed and applied early in the disease, can slow down the progression of the Parkinson\u2019s, but we know that not everyone is aware of this\u201d says Col\u00f3n-Semenza. \u201cAlthough exercise can have profound effects on disease management, in a survey of Hispanics with the disease in the New York City area, the majority indicated that exercise was not important. This study will help this community by understanding if this intervention was feasible, acceptable, and appropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much of the existing research on the benefits of physical activity for people living with Parkinson\u2019s disease has been conducted with predominantly white, highly educated individuals. Besides the obvious need to have research participants that are representative of the general population of people with Parkinson\u2019s disease, Col\u00f3n-Semenza\u2019s work is especially important as there is evidence that Hispanics have the highest incidence of Parkinson\u2019s disease in comparison to other ethnic groups in the US.<\/p>\n

Through the Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center at UConn Health, Col\u00f3n-Semenza is currently recruiting participants for a unique trial. The trial will implement and evaluate an intervention to increase physical activity for individuals with Parkinson\u2019s disease who are Hispanic.<\/p>\n

Specifically, it will evaluate if support from another person with Parkinson\u2019s disease helps increase physical activity levels among this population. The study will be conducted using mobile health technology and virtual meeting platforms allowing for recruitment across the US and its territories. Col\u00f3n-Semenza and her collaborators will then evaluate the effects of increased physical activity on quality of life and disease symptoms in this and subsequent studies.<\/p>\n

In another effort to directly engage Connecticut\u2019s Hispanic community, Col\u00f3n-Semenza, who is Puerto Rican, attended the Puerto Rican Day parade and festival on Oct. 8 in Hartford. There, she and her lab members assessed festival goers and educated them about physical therapy, exercise, and strength.<\/p>\n

Col\u00f3n-Semenza is also hosting a series of webinars in collaboration with the American Parkinson Disease Association. These webinars will share information about the role of exercise in the management of Parkinson\u2019s disease. The webinars are conducted in Spanish for a national and international audience. The first webinars were held on Sept. 12 and Oct. 24. The third will take place on Nov. 14.<\/p>\n

Col\u00f3n-Semenza\u2019s efforts help ensure Spanish speakers with Parkinson\u2019s disease can access culturally and linguistically tailored information and care that can benefit their health.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough these various studies and outreach efforts, we will learn if completely remote interventions are a potential method of interaction for interventions,\u201d she says. \u201cWe plan to continue to collaborate with the American Parkinson Disease Association to improve access to culturally and linguistically tailored health information to this underserved population.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Col\u00f3n-Semenza’s research is part of the Movement for Life Lab<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This work relates to CAHNR\u2019s Strategic Vision areas focused on<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>Promoting Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice;<\/em><\/a> and <\/em>Enhancing Health and Well-Being Locally, Nationally, and Globally.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Follow\u00a0<\/em>UConn CAHNR<\/em><\/a>\u00a0on social media<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Col\u00f3n-Semenza, collaborators, and students are working to improve access to culturally and linguistically tailored health information to this underserved population<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":174712,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2224,1715,2269,2299,2076],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2140],"class_list":["post-206230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cahnr","category-community-impact","category-inchip","category-kinesiology","category-research"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-21 03:56:24","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206230"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":206295,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206230\/revisions\/206295"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/174712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206230"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=206230"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=206230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}