Skip to main content
ARS Home » Plains Area » Houston, Texas » Children's Nutrition Research Center » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #384570
Research Project: Preventing the Development of Childhood Obesity

Location: Children's Nutrition Research Center

Title: Measurement challenges for childhood obesity research within and between Latin America and the United States

Author
item BERRIGAN, DAVID - National Cancer Institute (NCI, NIH)
item ARTEAGA, S - National Institutes Of Health (NIH)
item COLÓN-RAMOS, URIYOÁN - George Washington University
item ROSAS, LISA - Stanford University
item MONGE-ROJAS, RAFAEL - Costa Rican Institute For Research And Education On Nutrition And Health(INCIENSA)
item O'CONNOR, TERESIA - Children'S Nutrition Research Center (CNRC)
item PÉREZ-ESCAMILLA, RAFAEL - Yale University
item ROBERTS, ELIZABETH - University Of Michigan
item SANCHEZ, BRISA - Drexel University
item TÉLLEZ-ROJO, MARTHA - National Institute Of Public Health (INSP)
item VORKOPER, SUSAN - Fogarty International Center

Submitted to: Obesity Reviews
Publication Type: Review Article
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/26/2021
Publication Date: 5/4/2021
Citation: Berrigan, D., Arteaga, S.S., Colon-Ramos, U., Rosas, L.G., Monge-Rojas, R., O'Connor, T.M., Perez-Escamilla, R., Roberts, E.F., Sanchez, B., Tellez-Rojo, M.M., Vorkoper, S., the Cross Borders Working Group. 2021. Measurement challenges for childhood obesity research within and between Latin America and the United States. Obesity Reviews. e13242. https://doi.org/10.1111/obr.13242.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/obr.13242

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Childhood obesity is a major public health challenge across Latin America and the United States. Addressing childhood obesity depends on valid, reliable, and culturally sensitive measurements. Such progress within and between countries of the Americas could be enhanced through better measurement across different age groups, different countries, and in sending and receiving communities. Additionally, better and more comparable measurements could accelerate cross-border collaboration and learning. Here, we present (1) frameworks that influenced our perspectives on childhood obesity and measurement needs across the Americas; (2) a summary of resources and guidance available concerning measurement and adaptation of measures for childhood obesity research; and (3) three major areas that present challenges and opportunities for measurement advances related to childhood obesity, including parental behavior, acculturation, and the potential to incorporate ethno-graphic methods to identify critical factors related to economics and globalization. Progress to reduce childhood obesity across the Americas could be accelerated by further transnational collaboration aimed at improving measurement for better surveillance, intervention development and evaluation, implementation research, and evaluation of natural experiments. Additionally, there is a need to improve training related to measurement and for improving access to valid and reliable measures in Spanish and other languages common in the Americas.