Journal of Obesity & Weight Loss Therapy
Open Access

Abstract

Among preschool children aged 2-5 years, the prevalence of obesity doubled from 5.0% to 10.4% over the past 3 decades. Obesity tracks throughout development and 52% of obese children 3-5 years remain obese as adults. The risk of a child being obese as an adult is a joint function of being overweight as a child and parental obesity. Family change towards healthier habits, modifying the shared family eating and activity environment, supporting healthier behaviors and modeling new behaviors are important factors leading to prevention and treatment of child overweight. Only limited research has been conducted on early intervention, especially in the primary care setting. The talk will focus on Buffalo Healthy Tots, an innovative program focusing on the young child and been carried out in the primary care setting. The goal of this program is to test the efficacy of an innovative family-based intervention program designed for treating overweight/obese children aged 2-5 years and an overweight parent. We hypothesized that children and parents randomized to a family-based behavioral Intervention would have greater reductions in percent over body mass index (%OBMI) and BMI respectively, compared to children and parents randomized to Information Control, and that child and parent adiposity changes would be positively correlated. The methods, including the key aspects of the program will be reviewed. Particular attention will be devoted to the translational aspects of the program, ongoing progress and preliminary results.

Biography

Teresa Quattrin, obtained her M.D. from the University of Naples, Italy. She completed her Pediatric training at the University of Naples and at Women and Children?s Hospital of Buffalo (WCHOB) where she also completed a fellowship in Pediatric Endocrinology. She is UB Distinguished Professor and A. Conger Goodyear Chair of Pediatrics at the University at Buffalo, and Pediatrician-in-Chief at the WCHOB. She continues to serve also as the Director of the Diabetes Center at the WCHOB, established by her in 1990, and of the Division of Endocrinology-Diabetes (since 2002). Dr. Quattrin holds board certifications in Pediatrics and Pediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes. The Diabetes Center and the Division of Endocrinology have national recognition as premier clinical and research centers. Dr. Quattrin has had a long standing clinical and research interest in pediatric diabetes, insulin resistance, obesity and insulin growth factors. Dr. Quattrin is the principal investigator for the ?Type 2 Diabetes Center of Excellence? (T2DCOE) funded by the New York State Department of Health. The Diabetes Center is also part of the NIH sponsored ?Trial Net?, a network of clinical centers working collaboratively to prevent and slow down the progression of type 1 diabetes; and the T2 Diabetes Exchange, a large type 1 diabetes national database. Dr. Quattrin?s translational research on prevention and treatment of overweight in pre-school children is supported by NIH. The current study is a randomized clinical trial focusing on family based behavioral intervention delivered in the pediatric practice setting.