2-114 - Interdisciplinary Approaches to Reduce the Incidence of Early Childhood Obesity

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

The alarming prevalence of overweight and obesity in young children is a major public health crisis. Over a quarter of the nation’s children 2-5 years of age are either overweight or obese (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2009-2010), making them five times more likely to be overweight or obese in adolescence and at greater risk of chronic health problems later in life, compared to children with healthy weights. More research is needed as few studies of young children’s weight integrate the multiple risk factors that contribute to this epidemic, including: individual risks, family and community adversities, biologic and psychobiologic individual differences, poor nutrition and limited physical activity. This symposium brings together scholars from different disciplines working with interdisciplinary teams and examining multiple levels and sources of risk to study the epidemic of obesity with infants, toddlers and preschool-age children. In addition, new descriptive and intervention studies that target a variety of contexts, systems, and risk factors are needed to address the obesity epidemic. Presenters will share data from descriptive and intervention studies within child care programs, which can reach the over 60% of U.S. children under six years of age, and pregnancy, a critical period for offspring anthropometric development and opportune time for family-level behavioral interventions. The studies in this symposium include epidemiologic, clinical and developmental psychology approaches; physiologic measures; and methodological approaches aimed to move the field toward a more integrated, in-depth approach to reducing the incidence of obesity in early childhood.

Sub Unit

• Health, Growth, Injury

Chairs

• Abbey Alkon, UCSF School of Nursing

• Dianne S. Ward, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Department of Nutrition and Gillings School of Global Public Health

Individual Presentations

• Findings from a Prenatal Mindfulness Intervention to Reduce Stress and Prevent Excessive Weight Gain: Effects on Offspring Health - Presenting Author: Nicole R Bush, University of California, San Francisco; Abbey Alkon, UCSF School of Nursing; Katherine Blackburn, University of California, San Francisco; Kim Coleman-Phox, University of California, San Francisco; Barbara Laraia, University of California, Berkeley; Nancy Adler, University of California, San Francisco; Elissa Epel, University of California, San Francisco

• Correlation between maternal and infant cortisol varies by breastfeeding status - Presenting Author: Sara Benjamin Neelon, Duke University Medical Center and Duke Global Health Institute; Joanna Maselko, Duke University Global Health Institute; Marissa Stroo, Duke University Global Health Institute; Meghan Mayhew, Duke University Medical Center; Cathrine Hoyo, Duke Univ Dept of Community and Family Medicine

• Nutrition Practices in Family Child Care Homes: Does Participation in CACFP and Ethnicity of Provider Matter? - Presenting Author: Alison Tovar, University of Rhode Island; Kim Gans, Brown University; Patricia Risica, Brown University

• Two approaches to increase physical activity for preschool age children in child care centers - Presenting Author: Pooja Tandon, University of Washington Department of Pediatrics