How do nutrition assistance programs, the location of stores and the types of food they sell, and other aspects of the built environment affect diet, nutrition, and food security? A new 2-year research initiative by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) will investigate these questions.
In April 2015, the National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity Research (NCCOR) held a presidential breakfast roundtable at the Society of Behavioral Medicine’s 36th Annual Meeting & Scientific Sessions. This excerpt from the roundtable presentation highlights how NCCOR is supporting researchers with tools to amplify their work and findings including the NCCOR Measures Registry, Catalogue of Surveillance Systems, and active list of funding opportunities and upcoming events.
Up to five grants of $50,000 and six fellowships with $15,000 in seed grant funding were announced by Duke University and the University of North Carolina (UNC), Chapel Hill U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Center for Behavioral Economics and Healthy Food Choice Research (BECR Center).
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack announced on March 26 the USDA awarded $9 million in grants to develop childhood obesity intervention programs through colleges and universities in 12 states and Puerto Rico. The grants are funded through the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI), the flagship competitive grant program authorized under the 2014 Farm Bill.
“One-third of the children in the United States are overweight or obese, making this issue one of the greatest health challenges facing our nation,” said Vilsack. “It is critical that we make the effort to help our children be healthy kids and develop into healthy adults,” said Vilsack. Continue reading
Once obesity develops it is likely to persist. Given this understanding, there has been an increasing focus on preventing obesity in infancy and early childhood. Research to develop and implement effective prevention and intervention strategies in the first two years after birth has been limited.
In fall 2013, the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases convened a multidisciplinary workshop to summarize the current state of knowledge regarding the prevention of infant and early childhood obesity and to identify research gaps and opportunities. A workshop summary was recently published in the March 2015 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association Pediatrics. A related funding opportunity announcement was also released.
Just in time for the holidays, we’ve identified this year’s most popular childhood obesity resources on NCCOR’s website. If you haven’t had a chance to explore these resources, now is the time to learn more.
Over the past four decades, obesity rates have soared among all age groups. Today, nearly one-third of children and adolescents in the United States are either overweight or obese. Obese and overweight children and adolescents are more likely to become obese adults, placing them at increased risk for type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, hypertension, and certain forms of cancer.
The American Heart Association (AHA) together with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) are working to reverse the childhood obesity epidemic in the United States by 2015 and to decrease racial, ethnic, and income disparities in prevalence. Through our Voices for Healthy Kids’ Strategic Campaign Fund, the AHA is targeting the following six state, local and tribal advocacy priorities: Continue reading
Nemours received a five year cooperative agreement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to support healthy lifestyles for young children in child care. The funding, $4.2 million in the first year, and up to $20 million over five years, will be used to assist early care and education providers in six states adopt nutrition, breastfeeding support, physical activity, and screen time policies and practices. Continue reading
February marks the one-year anniversary of the National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity Research (NCCOR), a public-private collaboration to accelerate progress on reversing the epidemic of overweight and obesity among U.S. youth. Continue reading