Childhood Obesity Prevention

The Issue

Nearly one third of all U.S. children and adolescents are overweight or obese. Racial and ethnic minorities experience the highest rates of overweight and obesity when compared to whites, and the Midwest and Southern regions of the U.S. have disproportionately high rates. Most recent estimates for the prevalence of obesity among low-income preschool children are alarming.

Unless we act now, today’s children are likely to be the first generation to live sicker lives and die younger than their parents’ generation.

Research

In addition to individual level behaviors, environment can also play a large role in dietary and physical activity behaviors for youth and their families. Researchers at the Gretchen Swanson Center for Nutrition believe that influencing policy and changing environments to be “healthier” in addition to enabling youth and their families at an individual level to help choose foods of better dietary quality and increase physical activity behaviors can ultimately have a positive impact and empower youth and their families to live healthier lives.

Childhood obesity prevention includes the study of nutrition and physical activity programs across multiple levels to understand where change is most likely to occur. The Center’s research is guided by a socio-ecological model that influences behaviors at the individual, environmental and policy levels.

We conduct and assist others in conducting research that includes but is not limited to:

• Behavioral interventions
• Diet and physical activity assessment methodology
• Etiological studies
• Observational studies
• Secondary data analyses
• Diffusion and dissemination

Action

Dr. Amy Yaroch, the Center’s Executive Director, has worked in the area of childhood obesity prevention for more than 14 years. Before joining the Center, she was a Program Director in the Health Promotion Research Branch in the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). While at NCI, Dr. Yaroch was part of a group that helped launch the National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity Research (NCCOR) and she continues to actively work in the area of childhood obesity prevention. Specifically, Dr. Yaroch serves as an advisor on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Healthy Eating Research (HER) Program and serves on the National Advisory Committee for the RWJF Program, Salud America!– designed to prevent obesity among Latino youth.

Dr. Yaroch recently served on an Institute of Medicine committee to help develop a workshop to examine the potential relationship between food insecurity and obesity. The workshop resulted in a report titled Hunger and Obesity: Understanding a Food Security Paradigm

CDC Subcommittee for 2012 “Weight of the Nation” Conference

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity will host Weight of the Nation™ in Washington, D.C. on May 7 through 9, 2012. The conference is being planned by CDC with members of the planning committee. Dr. Amy Yaroch of the Gretchen Swanson Center for Nutrition is co-chair of the Food and Water System: Agriculture, Access and Sustainability subcommittee. Weight of the Nation™ is designed to provide a forum to highlight progress in the prevention and control of obesity through policy and environmental strategies.

Seed Grant Awards: Cancer Prevention and Control for American Indian Youth Utilizing Nutrition

The Gretchen Swanson Center for Nutrition and the Peggy and Charles Stephenson Oklahoma Cancer Center in Oklahoma City are soliciting applications for seed grant funding with the goal of gaining a better understanding of the role that nutrition plays in cancer prevention and control, with a focus on American Indian youth and their families. For complete information, review the Cancer-Nutrition Seed Grants RFP.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

View the report “F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America’s Future 2012″

Learn about the Center’s collaboration with a South Omaha restaurant to study healthy children’s menu changes.

Institute of Medicine’s “Early Childhood Obesity Prevention Policies” report released on June 23, 2011.

“Promoting a Healthier Next Generation” information and tips for parents, presented by Dr. Amy Yaroch, Center executive director, at Westside Community Schools’ “Food (R)evolution” event in Omaha, Neb.

“Solving the Problem of Childhood Obesity within a Generation,” White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity Report to the President. Read the Report.

Search the “Catalogue of Surveillance Systems” Relevant to Childhood Obesity Research.

“Addressing the ‘Health’ in Health Care: Nutrition, Prevention, and Wellness Practices” Read the transcript from Dr. Amy Yaroch’s Field Hearing before the House Agriculture Committee’s Subcommittee on Nutrition.

Read the article “Poverty, Food Insecurity, and Obesity: A Conceptual Framework for Research, Practice, and Policy” in the Journal of Hunger and Environmental Nutrition.