Obesity

Using data from the All of Us Research Program, this project aims to examine cardiometabolic measurements across different ethnic/racial groups in order to set a foundation for future funding for All of Us research. This project was funded by the University of Arizona Office of Research, Innovation, and Impact. 

Saludable is a prevention intervention tackling the linkages of toxic stress and pediatric obesity in Latino youth populations. The Saludable curriculum focuses on three domains of health and well-being: (1) nutrition, (2) physical activity, and (3) mindfulness based stress reduction. The intervention is being delivered at community sites in both rural and urban contexts across Pima and Maricopa Counties.

The Children’s Healthy Living Program for Remote Underserved Minority Populations in the Pacific Region (CHL) is a partnership among the remote Pacific jurisdictions of Alaska; American Samoa; Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI); the Freely Associated States of Micronesia (FAS) which includes the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), Republic of Palau, Federated States of Micronesia (FSM); Guam; and Hawaii to study childhood obesity among Pacific children, ages 2 to 8 years. The program is sponsored by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agriculture and Food Research Initiative. To address the child obesity epidemic in the Pacific, the CHL Program has the following objectives: (1) Conduct program/data inventories and situational analysis; (2) Train 22 professionals and para-professionals in obesity prevention; (3) Develop a Pacific food, nutrition, and physical activity data management and evaluation system, using assessment data, and aggregate, display and communicate available data pertinent to young child obesity; (4) Develop and conduct a community-based environmental intervention to prevent, maintain, or reduce young child overweight and obesity; (5) Evaluate the environmental intervention; and (6) Incur at least one obesity prevention policy change per jurisdiction.

In the U.S., Hispanic males have the highest rate of overweight and obesity when compared to males of other racial/ethnic groups. Obesity contributes to the risk for certain cancers in Hispanics. For example, obesity is associated with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), which is 1.4 and 1.9 times more common in Hispanics than in Non-Hispanic Whites (NHW) and African Americans, respectively. While not all individuals with NAFLD develop liver complications, nearly 30% will develop nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and be at risk for hepatocellular carcinoma, the most common form of liver cancer in adults. Consequently, Hispanic males have the highest rates of liver cancer incidence in the U.S., twice those of NHW men. Weight loss is considered the first line of prevention for NAFLD progression. Yet, current research is lacking to inform best practices to engage Hispanic males in weight loss and/or to promote a successful weight loss trajectory. Without this information, the health disparities associated with obesity related cancer will continue to increase. Using existing practice guidelines and evidence from our qualitative assessments in overweight/obese Hispanic males, we will test a novel intervention approach to address this knowledge gap. We propose to 1) assess the feasibility, acceptability and preliminary efficacy of a gender- and culturally-sensitive weight loss intervention in 20 overweight/obese Hispanic males ages 18-64 over 24 weeks; and 2) examine pathologic changes in the liver (NAFLD, NASH, fibrosis, or cirrhosis) in 20 overweight/obese Hispanic males ages 18-64 over 24 weeks using a non-invasive Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) of the liver. This project will be the first gender and culturally-sensitive weight loss intervention of which we are aware to explicitly target Hispanic males with an emphasis on reducing body weight. In addition, the intervention will provide highly impactful formative research on the effects of a weight loss lifestyle intervention on liver histology. Given the Hispanic population is the fastest growing in the U.S., efforts to identify strategies to promote weight control among Hispanic males has potential to significantly impact obesity-related cancer health disparities.

The purpose of the study is to shed light on how obesity develops by examining daily behaviors and sleep in people who have involuntarily lost their job. If findings show that disturbances in daily routine and sleep precede weight gain, then there is solid backing for the development of a behavioral sleep prevention program targeting unemployed individuals. Since unemployment, chronic sleep restriction, and obesity are such prevalent social and public health issues, the results of this study are highly relevant to a large segment of the U.S. population. Funding for this study came from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. 

Abstract not available. 

This trial includes the evaluation of daily grapefruit consumption over 6 weeks and its role in weight control and cardiometabolic risk factor modification. Additionally, the study includes an evaluation of the effects of added grapefruit on post-prandial inflammatory and oxidant stress response to a high-fat diet. This study received funding from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health. 

The study started in 1993 to evaluate health outcomes in aging postmenopausal women and to identify factors associated with healthy aging. Between 1993 and 1998, more than 161,000 women between 50 and 79 years of age joined the WHI. Beginning in October 2004, participants were consented for sequential 5-year WHI Extension Studies (ES). The research team continues to collect self-reported as well as medical record adjudicated health and mortality data. A team of junior investigators are engaged with data analysis in an effort to advance the dissemination of WHI research findings. Arizona research team members have published over 45 manuscripts in the past 8 years using this well-characterized and robust phenotypic information.