NHLBI Working Group Report on Childhood Obesity Prevention and Treatment

The NHLBI Working Group Report on Childhood Obesity Prevention and Treatment (8/07) has been posted on the NHLBI website. Please see http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/meetings/workshops/child-obesity/index.htm

Physical Activity Guidelines Advisory Committee Report, 2008: The 683-page Physical Activity Guidelines Advisory Committee Report, 2008 is the product of the 13-member Advisory Committee (and more than 30 additional consultants) established in October 2006 by the Health and Human Services Department. The report presents and summarizes the Committee¿s review of science relating physical activity to a variety of health outcomes. You can access the report by clicking the Report link at http://www.health.gov/paguidelines/.

Is the Obesity Epidemic Exaggerated? January 28, 2008: Last week, the UK health secretary declared that we are in a grip of an obesity epidemic, but does the evidence stack up? Researchers in this week\'s British Medical Journal debate the issue. To read more, see "Head to Head: Is the obesity epidemic exaggerated?" at BMJ Volume 336 pp 244-5.

The Global Epidemic of Obesity: An Overview: The Epidemiologic Reviews August 2007 Volume 29 has devoted this entire issue to a review on the global epidemic of obesity. Several OPC members have contributed to this issue, which can be reviewed at http://epirev.oxfordjournals.org/content/vol29/issue1/index.dtl

Upcoming Conferences

2008 - The fifth Active Living Research Annual Conference will be held April 9-12, 2008 in Washington, DC. The theme for next year's conference is Connecting Active Living Research to Policy Solutions. Please visit the conference web site for more details.

2008 - The 10th International Congress of Behavioral Medicine will be held August 27-30, 2008 in Tokyo, Japan. Deadline for abstracts has been extended to December 30, 2007. Please visit the conference web site for more details.

Center Faculty in the News

April 2008: John R. Sirard, Ph.D. recently provided expert testimony to the Minnesota Senate E-12 Education Budget Committee. Dr. Sirard has been working with the American Heart Association led coalition, Minnesota for Healthy Kids, to establish physical education curriculum standards and graduation requirements at the state level. His testimony was related to physical education, obesity, academic performance, and health.

Is the health risk from obesity being exaggerated? Two OPC experts challenge skeptics who say the obesity epidemic isn't as widespread or dangerous as we think. Center Director, Robert W. Jeffery, Ph.D. and Nancy E. Sherwood, Ph.D., a researcher at HealthPartners, say that the skeptics are simply denying the obvious. Read more about "Are the Health Risks of Obesity Overblown?" in the Star Tribune (Feb. 2008).

Center Director, Robert W. Jeffery, Ph.D., has conducted several studies on financial incentives and supports their use as motivators of behavior change. Read more about Dr. Jeffery's research in "Slim Down Your Body, Fatten Your Piggy Bank," in USA Today (Jan. 2008).

Center Co-Director, Simone French, Ph.D., was a presenter at the December 2005 Trans Atlantic Consumer Dialogue entitled "Generation Excess II" in Brussels, Belgium. Topics included the 'Role and responsibility of industry,' 'Creating healthy food environments', and 'Roles of economic incentives and disincentives.'

More obesity-related news can be found at the School of Public Health's "Faculty and Staff in the News" page.

Seminars

The weekly seminars of these departments often focus on obesity-related issues:
     -   Epidemiology & Community Health weekly seminar schedule.
     -   Food Science & Nutrition weekly seminar schedule.

A seminar series, Health Behaviors: Molecules to Policy, is being sponsored by the Cancer Center, Obesity Prevention Center, and the Minnesota Obesity Center. The goal of the series is to discuss research issues that cross-cut energy balance related health behaviors, primarily smoking, eating, alcohol intake and physical activity. Seminars are being coordinated by Dorothy Hatsukami, Ph.D. (hatsu001@umn.edu) and Simone French, Ph.D. (french@epi.umn.edu).