This proposal describes plans for a Resource Coordinating Unit (RCU) at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill to support and enhance the work of the Childhood Obesity Prevention and Treatment Research Consortium. The RCU will coordinate research activities and collaborations among awardees to maximize the synergistic effect of multiple investigators working on different projects all designed to improve the health of children through obesity reduction. As the RCU, our aims are to: 1. support communication and collaborations among investigators, 2. plan and support meetings, 3. facilitate selection of common measures across studies, 4. establish and maintain data capture and management systems, 5. conduct analyses of pooled data, 6. archive materials and prepare public use files, 7. coordinate publications and sharing of findings, 8. support expansion of study goals in ancillary studies, 9. promote dissemination and initiate partnerships, 10. evaluate the program as a whole, and 11. facilitate and enhance efforts of the Research Centers. The UNC RCU includes an exceptionally strong team, experienced and well qualified to assist the Consortium investigators in the conduct of outstanding research that will make a difference to the health of children. The UNC team has strong capacity in coordination of multi-center studies, expertise in childhood obesity and strong experience in the design of trials and analysis of pooled data.
Obesity during childhood is associated with numerous adverse health effects and substantially increases the risk of being an obese adult. This research will create and test promising multi-component and multi-level intervention approaches for the prevention and treatment of childhood obesity. Dissemination of these successful interventions has the potential to substantially improve the health of our youth.
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