Family Healthy Living Early Intervention Program
ObesityHealth Behavior4 moreThe Childhood Healthy Weights Early Intervention Program (EIP) is a family-based pilot program that will promote healthy lifestyle practices for families whose children are off the healthy weight trajectory (e.g., BMI ≥ 85th percentile for age and sex) that do not need the intensive services of medically supervised programs. It is a lifestyle behaviour approach for promoting healthy weights in children. The EIP program consists of 10 weekly intervention sessions (1.5 hours per session) followed by 4 maintenance sessions and is age specific (age 8-12). During the intervention, participants will also have access to digital educational content that is supplementary to what is provided during the individual sessions. The program will be integrated and aligned with existing BC-specific childhood healthy weights programs (e.g. the HealthLinkBC Eating and Activity Program for Kids). The EIP pilot will run from October-December 2018 with 8 child programs (age 8-12). Participants who do not qualify for this program (e.g., BMI ≤ 85th percentile for age and sex) will be offered a 10 week online program which is similar in educational content as the EIP program.
Greek Childhood Obesity (GRECO) Study
OverweightObesity3 moreThe purpose of the GRECO study were to: a) to provide national data on overweight and obesity prevalence in a representative sample of primary schoolchildren aged 10-12 years old, b) to identify those socio-economic, demographic factors, as well as dietary and physical activity habits and familial characteristics that are associated with childhood and preadolescent overweight and obesity, c) to identify lifestyle and dietary patterns that are associated with elevated blood pressure levels and dietary sodium intake.
Primary Care Clinical Practice Elements and Improving Overweight Children's Weight Status
OverweightChildhood ObesityThe purpose of this study is to identify whether specific clinical practices-including attention to body-mass-index (BMI) screening/overweight/obesity, medical risk (from conditions associated with overweight/obesity such as high blood pressure), and following up to reassess progress-will improve the weight status of overweight school-age children.
Decision-Making and the Relationship to Food Intake in Kids
Pediatric ObesityThe purpose of this 18-month project is to investigate how decision-making influences food choice and consumption in children ages 7 to 11 years old. Although several studies suggest that the ability to make good decisions relates to eating behaviors, no studies have looked at how food reward influences the decision-making process to impact actual food intake. This proposal will answer these questions and bridge this gap in knowledge, which could lead to the development of more effective interventions for childhood obesity. To accomplish this, the investigators have assembled a diverse team with expertise in food intake, nutrition, and decision sciences. First, the investigators will establish if there are differences in decision-making between children varying in weight status. Second, the investigators will determine if performance on behavioral decision-making tasks relates to food consumption in the laboratory. Third, the investigators will examine response functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) response to various rewards (i.e. food and money) and determine if this is influenced by child weight status. Fourth, the investigators will examine differences in fMRI BOLD at rest in decision-making regions are correlated with food intake and weight status. Eighty-two children will participate in our study. The long-term goal of this project is to investigate if there are differences in brain regions corresponding to these behaviors in overweight children and if these differences relate to eating behaviors in this population. Children will undergo fMRI while playing a reward task as well as consume meals in our laboratory. Decision-making will also be assessed by having children complete various behavioral measurements of reward and inhibitory control.
The Impact of Food Advertisements on Brain Response and Eating Behavior in Children
Pediatric ObesityThe purpose of this project is to examine the impact that television food advertisements have on brain responses and eating behavior in children. Food advertisements enhance children's liking and intake of foods that tend to be high in energy content and low in nutritional value. Although several studies have measured the differences in children's food intake after watching advertisements, none have shown the brain mechanisms associated with this change in behavior. In order to clarify the relationship between food advertising and eating behavior, the investigators have assembled a team with expertise in functional imaging, eating behaviors, and clinical pediatric research. First, the investigators will observe the differences in children's eating behaviors after being exposed to food commercials or non-food commercials. Second, the investigators will measure the difference in child brain response to high and low energy foods after being exposed to food commercials or non-food commercials. These data will allow us to identify which areas of the brain are specifically affected by exposure to food commercials and correlate activity in these areas with children's measured food intake in the laboratory. Children ages 7-9 will participate in this 5-visit study which will be completed over the course of 12 months. Understanding how food advertisements impact children's brain responses and subsequent eating behaviors will have implications for understanding why some children respond differently to these cues than others. These outcomes may also inform the development of more effective programs and policies to prevent childhood obesity.
Intervention Study of Cost-Offset Community Supported Agriculture (CO-CSA)
Pediatric ObesityChild Nutrition DisordersThe purpose of this study is to better understand how participation in cost-subsidized community supported agriculture programs paired with tailored education can affect diet quality and energy balance among children in low-income households.
Health & Culture Project: Cultural Factors Underlying Obesity in African-American Adolescents
Pediatric ObesityThe overall goal of this study is to examine the relationships between cultural identity and identity-based motivation, physical activity, diet and obesity risk in African-American adolescents. It was hypothesized that African-American youth who self-report a bicultural identity maintain health promotion beliefs and behaviors that reduce obesity risk compared to minority youth who only identify with one culture or neither culture. It was also hypothesized that African-American youth who self report a bicultural identity are more likely to hold beliefs about health promotion behaviors that are congruent with their cultural identity than compared to youth who only identify with one culture or neither culture.
Intervention INC: Interactive Nutrition Comics for Urban Minority Youth
ObesityChildhoodThe primary purpose of this study is to assess the feasibility and participant acceptability of an interactive, internet/mobile-enabled dietary self management intervention. The secondary purpose of this study is to determine if the intervention improves knowledge, attitudes and food preferences associated with the targeted behaviors, to reduce childhood obesity risk from baseline to post-test.
Breastfeeding in Infancy and Food Intake in Preschool-Aged Children
Childhood ObesityBreastfeedingThe purpose of this study is to compare female, preschool-aged children breastfed during infancy to female, preschool-aged children bottle-fed during infancy in their ability to adjust calorie intake in response to internal signals of hunger and fullness. Children and a parent will come to two sessions, with the children given drinks that are either high or low in energy, and then consume a lunch following the drink. The parent will be present during the lunch. Greater ability to self-regulate intake is demonstrated when less energy is consumed at lunch following the high energy drink as compared to the lunch following the low energy drink. Lunches will be videotaped so that parental feeding styles (i.e., how the parent interacted with the child during lunch) can be examined. The primary hypotheses are: 1.) the exclusively breastfed children will have higher self-regulation ability than the exclusively bottle-fed children, and 2.) the mothers of the exclusively breastfed children will demonstrate a parental feeding style characterized by less control and restriction than the mothers (or parent primarily responsible for child feeding) of the exclusively bottle-fed children.
The Impact of the "Nutrition Enrichment and Healthy Living Model" ( NEHLM) on Diet Quality, Physical...
Childhood ObesityChildhood socioeconomic status (SES) is related to poor physical health, obesity, elevated cardiovascular risk factors and iron deficiency anemia. We plan to offer a comprehensive framework allowing the "Nutrition Enrichment and Healthy Living Model" (NEHLM) among a low SES Kindergarten children. The model offered is designed to take into account the current economic status of the child's family. We shall conduct a randomized controlled trial to assess the efficacy of the intervention. Our main objective: To compare the influence of the intervention on changes in food consumption, physical activity and ,and caries rates in the children in kindergartens where it is applied versus the control kindergartens. The research hypothesis: Integrative Nutrition Enrichment and Healthy Living Model (NEHLM) will improve health behaviors among children and parents in comparison to control intervention (physical activity only).