| Project: Development of Eating Patterns and Obesity in Black Girls |
| Award Year: 2002 |
| Amount of award, fiscal 2002: $399,943.00 |
| Institution: University of California, Berkeley |
| Principal Investigator: Patricia Crawford |
| Status: Completed |
| Detailed Objective: This study develops obesity prevention strategies, targeting adolescent Black girls. It will evaluate the role of dietary patterns as a mediator of the relationship between socio-environmental factors and obesity, using the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's Growth and Health Study (NGHS), the largest longitudinal study of Black adolescent females. Obesity is epidemic in the United States and it has shown a particularly high increase among Black girls. Efforts to design interventions to prevent obesity have been hindered by limited understanding of specific behaviors that contribute to the problem. Although dietary intake is a causal factor, previous research has been unable to find clear relationships by looking only at macronutrient intakes or total energy. This study will adopt a different approach by looking at patterns of dietary intake rather than at individual nutrients. This study uses a comprehensive database of food patterns, created from dietary intake data gathered prospectively over a period of 10 years. These data will permit examination of dietary patterns both prior to and during the development of obesity in adolescent girls. The data are from a cohort of 1,213 Black girls who participated in the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Growth and Health Study (NGHS) starting at ages 9-10 beginning in 1987. Over a 10-year period, the cohort provided annual information on medical history, dietary intake, physical activity, anthropometric measurements, health beliefs and attitudes, and a range of psychosocial variables. As the girls matured, they also provided information about smoking and alcohol consumption, birth control, pregnancies, and births. Data were gathered periodically from parents, providing detailed information on household composition and demographics, medical history, dietary patterns, family interaction, and health beliefs and attitudes. |
| Topic: Dietary Intake and Quality, Obesity |
Output:
Ritchie, L., P. Spector, M. Stevens, M. Schmidt, G. Schreiber, R. Striegel-Moore, M-C. Wang, and P. Crawford. “Dietary Patterns in Adolescence Are Related to Adiposity in Young Adulthood in Black and White Females,” The Journal of Nutrition, Vol. 137, Issue 2, February 2007. |