Project Number: 6250-51000-053-50
Project Type: Specific Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Apr 01, 2009
End Date: Mar 31, 2014

Objective:
Objective 1: Determine environmental factors and eating pattern typologies associated with obesity and related diseases in children, adolescents, and young adults using extant datasets. Sub-objective 1.A. Examine the impact of dietary calcium intake and dairy product consumption on weight status in a multi-ethnic, low-income population. Sub-objective 1.B. Determine the impact of breakfast and ready-to-eat cereal (RTEC) on nutrient intake and weight status. Sub-objective 1.C. Determine the impact of snack consumption on nutrient intake and weight status. Sub-objective 1.D. Identify psychosocial factors influencing children’s eating patterns and weight status. Sub-objective 1.E. Evaluate mealtime intake of children as a function of portion size, and evaluate caregiver characteristics related to children's portion sizes.

Approach:
These objectives will be accomplished through secondary data analyses on currently existing datasets. Children's Nutrition Research Center researchers will conduct various analyses in a sequential timeline, resulting in scientific publications and presentations. Scientists will use a multitude of statistical programs (e.g., SAS, SPSS, SUDAAN) to conduct the secondary data analyses. A variety of analytical methods will be used depending on the specific objective (e.g., descriptive statistics; regression analyses; sample-weighted least square means; generalized linear models; and mixed effects models), and adjustments to the analytical methods will be made as appropriate for family support, parental perceptions and concerns about child weight, parental BMI, and child temperament. Additionally we plan to use population-averaged models using generalized estimating equations (GEE) to account for possible clustering effects.