Delta Nutrition Intervention and Research Initiative
(Delta NIRI)

Mission:
The mission of the Lower Mississippi Delta Nutrition Intervention Research Initiative is to improve the nutrition and health of families of the Lower Mississippi River Delta region. The Agricultural Research Service (http://www.ars.usda.gov/) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture is coordinating a major research initiative that brings together the talents of six institutions in the three-state region, along with a coordinating center. The Initiative consists of three major phases. The first is a series of surveys to assess the nutrition and health needs of the Delta region. In the second phase, selected residents of the Delta region will be followed for several years to track changes in their nutrition and health. And, the third phase will be directed toward carrying out intervention programs to improve the nutrition and health of the men, women, and children of the Delta Region.

Objective:
The objective of this cooperative research project is to evaluate the nutritional health in the Lower Mississippi Delta, to identify nutritionally responsive problems, and to design and evaluate interventions that may be sustained at the community level and implemented on a larger scale in similar areas of the United States.

Approach:
Developing capacity as necessary, the Lower Mississippi Delta Nutrition Intervention Research Initiative (Delta NIRI) Consortium identifies environmental and community characteristics related to nutritional status; measures dietary intake; assesses nutritional risk factors; designs, conducts, and evaluates interventions in the Lower Mississippi Delta. The University of Southern Mississippi specifically has established a Behavioral Research Center, which conducts telephone, mail, Internet surveys and qualitative data collection including focus groups; takes a lead role within the Delta NIRI in data management for community assessments; and conducts research in food and health behavior change and evaluation.