SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth
Principal Investigator: Catherine Pihoker
SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth is a national CDC/NIH-sponsored research project at six clinical sites. SEARCH’s goals are to examine the rates, classification, complications and care patterns for diabetes in children and teens. The emphasis is on understanding type 2 diabetes in youth. This research is critically important to public health as it provides:
- Information about whether and how much diabetes is increasing among youth of different racial/ethnic groups in the United States
- Information on how diabetes impacts physical health, including complications
- Valuable data about the quality of care and the quality of life of these youth
For more information contact Beth Loots.
Strong Kids Strong Teens
Principal Investigator: Lenna Liu
To address the need for accessible, family-based community programs focusing on pediatric obesity, we designed Strong Kids Strong Teens, a YMCA-based healthy lifestyle program for overweight children 8 to14 years old. Eligible children with a body mass index (BMI) greater than or equal to the 85th percentile are referred by their primary care provider if the assessment of readiness to change is greater than or equal to 4 (based on a scale of 0 to 10). Goals of the program evaluation include:
- Determining program feasibility by determining referral patterns, attendance, attrition and satisfaction rates
- Measuring behavior change (nutrition and physical activity) at 3 and 9 months compared to baseline
- Measuring pre- to post-program BMI scores and BMI percentiles
- Measuring how readiness to change influences outcomes.
For information contact Patty Hencz.
ADVANCE — Activity, Diet, and Visceral Adiposity: New Care Emerging
Principal Investigator: Brian Saelens
Body fat stored inside the abdominal cavity, or visceral fat, appears to be among the most harmful types of fat. However, few studies have examined whether visceral fat accumulation in children can be prevented or reduced. Our observational Child Health and Natural Growth Evaluation Study (CHANGES) among overweight children found that children with higher physical activity had less visceral fat accumulation.
The ADVANCE project is a pilot 4-month behavioral childhood obesity intervention trial designed to look at the impact of diet and physical activity modification on children’s visceral fat. Intervention includes:
- Weekly group and individual family sessions focused on behavioral strategies for dietary and activity change
- Dietary prescriptions to reduce calories
- Increasing healthy foods and decreasing unhealthy foods
Some ADVANCE participants focus more on changing dietary behaviors, while others focus more on changing physical activity. Forty child-parent pairs, in which both the child and parent are overweight, will be randomly assigned to one of the interventions. Primary outcomes will include pre-intervention to post-intervention change in child visceral fat (measured by MRI), after adjusting for changes in total body fat (measured by DXA). Other outcomes include changes in child weight, body fat, height, physical activity, diet and behavioral skill adherence, as well as parent body fat and weight.
Among the first studies to measure visceral fat before and after pediatric weight management treatment, this pilot study has important implications for the dietary and physical activity recommendations for overweight youth.
For additional information contact Trina Colburn.
The Influence of Neighborhood Context on Obesity
Co-Principal Investigators: Lori Pfingst and Lenna Liu
Obesity prevalence has increased among all social groups over the past 30 years, but low income groups and people of color are disproportionately affected. While research continues to document an association between socioeconomic status (SES) and obesity, there is little understanding of how SES shapes the individual behaviors that lead to obesity. Furthermore, despite a large and growing body of research documenting the importance of social conditions for health, interventions typically focus on individual-level behavior changes and ignore the social and economic factors that influence a person’s ability to change their health behavior.
Using qualitative data collected from families at Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic in South Seattle, the current research seeks to better understand how social and economic conditions shape family experiences and the choices parents make regarding their children’s diet, eating behavior, and physical activity.
Motivational Interviewing in Obesity
Principal Investigator: Paula Lozano
Steatohepatitis (NASH)
Principal Investigator: Karen Murray
University of Washington Center for Obesity Research (UW-COR)
Children’s is one of the community partners of the University of Washington Center for Obesity Research (UW-COR) . This center fosters collaborative research that integrates the biomedical, public health and policy aspects of the obesity epidemic.
Clinical Trials
We still need to learn more about the best ways to evaluate and treat overweight and obese children and their families. Clinical trials are developed to test the effectiveness of new approaches. There are no open clinical trials at this time.