Location: Children's Nutrition Research Center
Project Number: 3092-10700-068-000-D
Project Type: In-House Appropriated
Start Date: Mar 4, 2024
End Date: Mar 3, 2029
Objective:
Obesity increases throughout childhood and adolescence and tracks into adulthood. Once established, it is difficult to treat or reverse, strengthening the case for primary prevention. Multiple factors are at play, including parental feeding styles, access to healthy food options, physical activity/sedentary behavior, sleep and circadian rhythm, and a variety of other factors. Additionally, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) 2020-2025 highlighted the urgent need for studies into whether the intake of non-human non-formula milk foods and beverages influences children’s cognitive development prior to 24m of age. Thus a need for research to enhance childhood health and lifestyle behaviors are needed and multiple studies will be conducted addressing: 1) examine influences on obesity risk in children and adolescents from under-represented families; 2) examine the role of sedentary behaviors in children’s energy expenditure and risk of overweight or obesity; 3) determine the impact of sleep and circadian health on children’s energy expenditure and risk of overweight or obesity; 4) characterize the role of sleep timing and quality on bone quality and strength in children; 5) examine the impact of patterns and characteristics of 24-hour activity and sleep behaviors on type-2 diabetes related outcomes; 6) determine the effect of increasing physical activity and stopping evening snacking on metabolic health, gene expression and fasting plasma amino acid concentrations; and 7) utilize metabolomics to identify biomarkers of dietary intake and, subsequently, to examine the associations of these molecules with neurocognitive development in toddlers at ages 18-24 months.
Approach:
A multidimensional approach will be undertaken to address the behavioral nutrition research conducted at the Children's Nutrition Research Center. Researchers will examine influences on obesity risk in children and adolescents from under-represented families by targeting four likely drivers: residential location, parental approach to feeding, household fruit and vegetable purchases, and food and nutrition security. Rigorous studies will be conducted focusing in children’s physical activity, sedentary time, and/or sleep in four samples: 1) diverse healthy preschool aged children, 2) diverse adolescents with or without obesity, 3) Hispanic adolescents at risk for type 2 diabetes, and 4) diverse adolescents with pre-diabetes to examine the mechanism(s) for which physical activity, sedentary time, and/or sleep influence children’s risk of obesity, bone and/or metabolic health. Additionally, researchers will examine associations between parent-reported dietary intake with metabolome-wide metabolites from infants (ages 12-24 months) to identify generalizable biomarkers of dietary intake, useful for wide-ranging future studies into diet-health associations in toddlerhood, including those focusing on neurocognition.
