Two Rio Grande Valley schools are participating in a childhood obesity study.

The study is the largest study in the country, with the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley playing a role in it.

Azalea Rodriguez wants her five-year-old daughter, Ximena Elias, to live a healthier lifestyle than what she experienced growing up in the Valley.

"Getting out of the habit of our Hispanic culture of like let's go for barbacoa, let's go for menudo, like let's make healthier choices at home," Rodriguez said.

Healthier choices, Rodriguez and her daughter are now making as Ximena partakes in the South Texas Early Prevention Study, or STEPS for short.

"When I first heard about the STEPS program, I thought it was a wonderful opportunity for her to be involved in," Rodriguez said.

The STEPS study is conducted by the Bienestar Neema Health Program in partnership with UTRGV. It follows the student's progress from four to six years old.

The study is being carried out in 28 preschools with more than 1,100 students in South Texas, where obesity is prevalent.

PSJA Independent School District and La Joya Independent School District are taking part in the study. Each district has 14 schools involved, seven schools are part of the controlled group and the other seven in the intervention.

Bienestar Director of Social and Health Research Center Roberto Treviño said when looking at those two school districts, they found 18 percent of the children were obese, compared to the national average of eight percent.

"So they're almost twice as the number as the obesity there is at the national level of children in their same age group," Treviño said.

That is why both districts want to address the issue.

The lessons embed health topics into the regular curriculum like how the heart operates or how food choices impact their health.

While the study is still ongoing with the second group set to begin this year, Treviño says the results from group one, which started back in 2018, show 53 percent of students improved their cardiorespiratory fitness compared to 23 percent in the control group.

The study on group two will be completed next year.

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