The new Cornell Center for Behavior Intervention Development in New York City aims to cut obesity and obesity-related deaths in the city's African-American and Latino communities with a $6 million grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

"African-Americans and Latinos have been disproportionately affected by the obesity epidemic, and its related risks for diabetes and heart disease," said Dr. Mary Charlson, the William T. Foley Distinguished Professor of Medicine at the Weill Cornell Medical College (WCMC) and executive director of the Center for Integrative Medicine at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. "To address obesity, we will focus on changing eating behaviors."

Stress, certain visual cues, even someone's mood can all have a substantial impact on behavior and eating, she said: "By affecting changes in these areas, we think people will be able to achieve sustainable weight loss."

The center is a joint program between WCMC, Cornell in Ithaca, Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx and Renaissance Health Systems in Manhattan. Medical sociologist Elaine Wethington, associate professor of human development and of sociology and co-director of the Cornell Edward R. Roybal Center for Translational Research on Aging, is the Ithaca principal investigator.

Charlson will direct a new study called Small Changes and Lasting Effects at the center. It will take an interdisciplinary approach to lifestyle changes, with psychologists, medical sociologists, nutritionists and other experts working directly with community members in Harlem and the South Bronx to tailor personalized programs that are more likely to be successful than a blanket approach.

The team hopes to develop mindful eating strategies aimed at reducing weight through small, sustained changes in eating behavior coupled with sustained increases in physical activity. Their goal is to affect a 7 percent weight reduction in each obese adult participating.

The team plans to partner with community and faith-based organizations in communities that are most severely affected by obesity and high blood pressure, and create interventions that people can use at home.

Wethington will contribute her expertise on social stressors and health, assessment of social networks and their impact on health behavior. She also will use her expertise, along with that of Carol Devine, professor of nutrition, to translate the research for use in the community intervention. Devine also will contribute to dietary measures and the relationships between chronic stressors from work and family and intervention outcomes.

Brian Wansink, the John Dyson Professor of Consumer Behavior at Cornell, will contribute his knowledge on how passive and active interventions -- from the way patients stock their kitchen pantries and cupboards to how food is arranged on a table -- can be strong determinants in what and how much is eaten, and Marty Wells, the Charles A. Alexander Professor and Chair of the ILR School's Department of Social Statistics will serve as the project's biostatistician.