Children’s Hospital to use grant to study early childhood obesity
by April 7, 2016 9:28 am 149 views
Scientists at the Arkansas Children’s Hospital Research Institute (ACHRI) and the Arkansas Children’s Nutrition Center (ACNC) will use a $1.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study how development during infancy affects childhood obesity.
The study, which will last five years, will examine body fat distribution in infants and children during a phase of rapid growth before they reach the age of 2.
“We’re hoping to reveal factors during this stage of life in babies that influence later-childhood obesity development,” said Elisabet Borsheim, PhD, an associate professor of Pediatrics in the UAMS College of Medicine who works on the campuses of ACHRI and ACNC. “When we know what’s important, then we can look at the next step — to really prevent obesity by creating early-life interventions that help children later in life.”
Dr. Aline Andres, PhD, an associate professor of Pediatrics in the UAMS College of Medicine and associate director for Clinical Research at ACNC, and Dr. Borsheim are co-principal investigators for the study.
Nearly a quarter of U.S. children between 2 and 5 years old are overweight, and another 11 percent are obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Previous research has demonstrated that if children are obese as early as age 2, they are much more likely to face obesity as adults, putting them at higher risk for obesity-related health issues.
The grant, funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, will allow researchers to explore metabolic mechanisms that have not been previously investigated in relation to childhood obesity. The project will bridge work from ACNC’s “Glowing Study” — which has examined mothers and their newborns — to look at how children take in and expend energy.
“We are looking more at what happens after a baby is born using this new grant,” Borsheim said. “We’ll combine pregnancy data and postnatal information to get an even better picture of important factors driving early-life weight gain.”
Preliminary work to support the project was funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and by the Arkansas Biosciences Institute, the major research component of the Tobacco Settlement Proceeds Act of 2000.