Despite recent progress in obesity prevention, the prevalence of childhood obesity remains at historically high levels. Racial and ethnic minorities and children from disadvantaged backgrounds suffer a disproportionate share of the national obesity burden and these disparities emerge as early as the first two years of life. Many factors contribute to the intractability of obesity but promising approaches for prevention and reduction of related health disparities are emerging including cross-sector strategies that support changes at the individual, family, and systems-levels and which begin in the earliest stages of life. The overall goals of this K24 application are to provide Dr. Elsie Taveras with protected time to perform research to reduce the prevalence of childhood obesity particularly among racial and ethnic minorities and those from disadvantaged backgrounds and to train students, fellows, and junior faculty who wish to perform patient-oriented outcomes research in childhood obesity. Dr. Taveras is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, Associate Professor of Nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health, and a Pediatrician at Massachusetts General Hospital for Children. She leads several large patient-oriented research studies including an epidemiologic study examining early life origins of childhood obesity disparities; a whole-of-community intervention to prevent obesity among disadvantaged children ages 2-12 years; and a clinical-community intervention to reduce obesity among school-age children. Dr. Taveras has already successfully served as a research mentor to more than a dozen MD and PhD candidates and clinicians in training. This K24 award would come at a critical time in Dr. Taveras's career as it will allow her to heighten research productivity in the area of childhood obesity disparities and help foster the careers of junior childhood obesity scientists through her mentorship. The proposed scientific aims of this K24 application will serve to strengthen Dr. Taveras's ability to provide mentorship to junior investigators in patient-oriented research, with an emphasis on: (a) understanding the early, contextual roots of racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in obesity; (b) attaining broad insights into effective cross-sector strategies for preventing obesity in early life; and (c) translating observational epidemiology int interventions to reduce early life obesity risk factors.

Public Health Relevance

In the US, substantial disparities exist in childhood obesity among racial and ethnic minorities and children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Many factors contribute to the intractability of obesity disparities but promising approaches for prevention and reduction of related health disparities are emerging including multi- sector strategies that begin in the earliest stages of life. The overall goals of this K24 application are to provide Dr. Elsie Taveras with protected time to perform research to reduce childhood obesity and to train students, fellows, and junior faculty who wish to perform patient-oriented outcomes research in childhood obesity disparities.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)
Type
Midcareer Investigator Award in Patient-Oriented Research (K24)
Project #
5K24DK105989-03
Application #
9314561
Study Section
Kidney, Urologic and Hematologic Diseases D Subcommittee (DDK)
Program Officer
Saslowsky, David E
Project Start
2015-07-28
Project End
2020-06-30
Budget Start
2017-07-01
Budget End
2018-06-30
Support Year
3
Fiscal Year
2017
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Massachusetts General Hospital
Department
Type
DUNS #
073130411
City
Boston
State
MA
Country
United States
Zip Code
02114
Woo Baidal, Jennifer A; Elbel, Erin E; Lavine, Joel E et al. (2018) Associations of Early to Mid-Childhood Adiposity with Elevated Mid-Childhood Alanine Aminotransferase Levels in the Project Viva Cohort. J Pediatr 197:121-127.e1
Woo Baidal, Jennifer A; Cheng, Erika R; Rifas-Shiman, Sheryl L et al. (2018) Association of vitamin E intake at early childhood with alanine aminotransferase levels at mid-childhood. Hepatology 67:1339-1347
Schiff, Davida M; Wachman, Elisha M; Philipp, Barbara et al. (2018) Examination of Hospital, Maternal, and Infant Characteristics Associated with Breastfeeding Initiation and Continuation Among Opioid-Exposed Mother-Infant Dyads. Breastfeed Med 13:266-274
Fiechtner, Lauren; Perkins, Meghan; Biggs, Vincent et al. (2018) Rationale and design of the Clinic and Community Approaches to Healthy Weight Randomized Trial. Contemp Clin Trials 67:16-22
Freedman, David S; Butte, Nancy F; Taveras, Elsie M et al. (2017) Longitudinal changes in BMI z-scores among 45 414 2-4-year olds with severe obesity. Ann Hum Biol 44:687-692
Woo Baidal, Jennifer A; Nelson, Candace C; Perkins, Meghan et al. (2017) Childhood obesity prevention in the women, infants, and children program: Outcomes of the MA-CORD study. Obesity (Silver Spring) 25:1167-1174
Franckle, Rebecca L; Falbe, Jennifer; Gortmaker, Steven et al. (2017) Student obesity prevalence and behavioral outcomes for the massachusetts childhood obesity research demonstration project. Obesity (Silver Spring) 25:1175-1182
Moran, Alyssa J; Rimm, Eric B; Taveras, Elsie M (2017) A School-Based Brand Marketing Program's Adherence to Federal Nutrition Criteria. Am J Prev Med 53:710-713
Taveras, Elsie M; Rifas-Shiman, Sheryl L; Bub, Kristen L et al. (2017) Prospective Study of Insufficient Sleep and Neurobehavioral Functioning Among School-Age Children. Acad Pediatr 17:625-632
Fiechtner, Lauren; Cheng, Erika R; Lopez, Gabriel et al. (2017) Multilevel Correlates of Healthy BMI Maintenance and Return to a Healthy BMI among Children in Massachusetts. Child Obes 13:146-153

Showing the most recent 10 out of 23 publications