Federal Grant Award Summary

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) awarded the University of Denver a Project Grant totaling $169,638 (awarded July 15, 2026) under the Cardiovascular Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.837) to investigate the relationship between neighborhood food access and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in early childhood. The research leverages two prospective cohorts—the geographically diverse Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) cohort and the Denver-based CARE cohort—to examine whether limited access to healthy foods in residential neighborhoods predicts obesogenic feeding practices, poor dietary quality, and elevated CVD risk markers in young children. Using geocoded address data and Geographic Information System (GIS) analysis, the study will create census tract-level and individual child-level measures of food access density to test mechanistic hypotheses linking neighborhood food environment to parental feeding behaviors, child dietary intake, eating behaviors, and physiological CVD risk indicators (body mass index, body fat, and blood pressure) measured between ages 2 and 5 years.

The project will be completed by June 30, 2031, and represents investigator-initiated mechanistic research aligned with NHLBI's portfolio emphasis on understanding cardiovascular disease origins and prevention strategies in high-risk populations. As a prime recipient, the University of Denver will conduct the research at its Denver, Colorado location, contributing specialized expertise in child health outcomes and longitudinal cohort analysis to advance early-life CVD prevention science.