Document text
Principal Investigator: Alicia S Kunin-Batson
Organization: UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
Fiscal Year: 2024
Award: $643,287
Funding agency: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
Project Summary/Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has had an alarming impact on already unacceptably high childhood obesity rates,
and emerging evidence shows that traditional approaches to pediatric weight management have been
markedly less effective since the onset of the pandemic. As obesity during childhood is much more likely to be
sustained during adulthood, and children with obesity and other chronic conditions are more likely to have
severe forms of COVID-19 requiring hospitalization, this alarming increase in childhood obesity rates is poised
to have a broad and long-term impact on population health unless effective interventions are implemented. Yet,
we know very little about the unique drivers of this dramatic increase in childhood obesity and whether BMI
increases will persist and become lifelong. We know even less about the protective factors that mitigate this
risk, as some youth will not develop obesity/worsening cardiometabolic health or may recover quickly despite
risk exposures. Our goals are to uncover the biobehavioral pathways through which pandemic-related
stressors drive childhood obesity and cardiometabolic risk, and to identify protective factors and intervention
targets to mitigate the long-term impact of the pandemic on children’s health. The proposed research offers a
unique, time-sensitive opportunity to prospectively examine the impact of multilevel stressors brought on by the
pandemic to identify factors influencing BMI and cardiometabolic health trajectories. We will leverage an
established longitudinal cohort of racially/ethnically diverse children (60% Latino) from predominantly low-
income households, who were enrolled at 2-4 years of age (U01HD068890) and followed annually through
ages 7-11 (R01HD090059). Underscoring the timeliness, uniqueness, and significance of this cohort, body
composition, cardiovascular and metabolic functioning, neuroendocrine, oxidative stress, and inflammatory
biomarkers, and health behaviors were obtained just prior to the onset of the pandemic (n=338). Drawing on a
rich history of longitudinal data over 5 previous timepoints including immediately prior to the pandemic, we
propose to add two new waves of data collection (7- and 8-years after inception of the cohort, 2-3 years post-
onset of the pandemic) when children will be 10-14 years of age, an important developmental window of
obesity and cardiometabolic imprinting. Multiple levels of pandemic-related stressors will be measured,
alongside gold standard biological measures of stress activation, adiposity and cardiometabolic health,
objective health behavior measures, and parent-child surveys. Our specific aims focus on identifying the
pathways, parent-child factors, and neighborhood/community contexts needed to guide effective childhood
obesity interventions in the aftermath of the pandemic and reduce adverse health consequences among
vulnerable and understudied populations.
Terms: <0-11 years old><14 year old><14 years of age><21+ years old><4 year old><4 years of age><Adult><Adult Human><Aeroseb-HC><Affect><African American><Afro American><Afroamerican><Age><BMI><BMI percentile><BMI z-score><Behavioral Mechanisms><Biological><Biological Markers><Body Composition><Body fat><Body mass index><Buffers><COVID crisis><COVID epidemic><COVID pandemic><COVID-19><COVID-19 crisis><COVID-19 epidemic><COVID-19 era><COVID-19 global health crisis><COVID-19 global pandemic><COVID-19 health crisis><COVID-19 pandemic><COVID-19 pandemic affected><COVID-19 pandemic consequence><COVID-19 pandemic effects><COVID-19 pandemic impact><COVID-19 pandemic impacted><COVID-19 period><COVID-19 public health crisis><COVID-19 years><CV-19><Caloric Intake><Cardiovascular><Cardiovascular Body System><Cardiovascular Organ System><Cardiovascular system><Cell Aging><Cell Senescence><Cellular Aging><Cellular Senescence><Cetacort><Child><Child Care><Child Health><Child Rearing><Child Youth><Childhood><Children (0-21)><Chronic><Clinical><Communities><Coronavirus Infectious Disease 2019><Cort-Dome><Cortef><Cortenema><Cortisol><Cortispray><Cortril><Data><Data Collection><Dermacort><Development><Economic Income><Economical Income><Economics><Eldecort><Energy Intake><Enrollment><Ethnic Origin><Ethnicity><Exhibits><Goals><Health><Health behavior><Heart Vascular><Heel><History><Hospital Admission><Hospitalization><Household><Hydrocortisone><Hydrocortone><Hytone><Inadequate Sleep Hygiene><Income><Inflammation><Inflammatory><Intervention><Intervention Strategies><Job loss><Latino><Long-term cohort><Longitudinal cohort><Longterm cohort><Low income><Measures><Mechanisms of Behavior and Behavior Change><Mediating><Mental Health><Mental Hygiene><Metabolic><Neighborhoods><Neuroendocrine><Neuroendocrine System><Neurosecretory Systems><Nutracort><Obesity><Outcome><Over weight><Overweight><Oxidative Stress><Parenting><Parenting behavior><Parents><Pathway interactions><Physical activity><Policies><Population><Prevalence><Proctocort><Psychological Health><Puericulture><Quetelet index><Race><Races><Recording of previous events><Reducing diet><Replicative Senescence><Research><Research Resources><Resources><Risk><SARS-CoV-2 epidemic><SARS-CoV-2 global health crisis><SARS-CoV-2 global pandemic><SARS-CoV-2 pandemic><SARS-coronavirus-2 epidemic><SARS-coronavirus-2 pandemic><Security><Self Efficacy><Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome CoV 2 epidemic><Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome CoV 2 pandemic><Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 epidemic><Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 pandemic><Social Network><Social isolation><Stress><Survey Instrument><Surveys><Time><Weight maintenance regimen><Youth><Youth 10-21><adiposity><adulthood><age 14 years><age 4 years><ages><behavior mechanism><bio-markers><biobehavior><biobehavioral><biologic><biologic marker><biomarker><caloric dietary content><cardiometabolic><cardiometabolic risk><cardiometabolism><child adiposity><child obesity><childhood adiposity><childhood obesity><childrearing><circulatory system><cohort><community intervention><community level intervention><community-based intervention><coronavirus disease 2019><coronavirus disease 2019 crisis><coronavirus disease 2019 epidemic><coronavirus disease 2019 global health crisis><coronavirus disease 2019 global pandemic><coronavirus disease 2019 health crisis><coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic><coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic consequence><coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic impact><coronavirus disease 2019 public health crisis><coronavirus disease crisis><coronavirus disease epidemic><coronavirus disease pandemic><coronavirus disease-19><coronavirus disease-19 global pandemic><coronavirus disease-19 pandemic><coronavirus infectious disease-19><corpulence><developmental><economic><effective intervention><effects following the COVID-19 pandemic><enroll><ethnic diversity><ethnically diverse><executive control><executive function><experience><food insecurity><four year old><four years of age><fourteen year old><fourteen years of age><future outbreak><health related behavior><histories><housing instability><impact of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic><imprint><incomes><instably housed><interventional strategy><kids><next outbreak><obese children><obesity during childhood><obesity in children><obesity intervention><obesity risk><obesity therapy><obesity treatment><outbreak in the future><pandemic><pandemic associated stressor><pandemic disease><pandemic effect><pandemic impact><pandemic outcome><pandemic related stressor><pandemic repercussions><pandemic stressor><parent><pathway><pediatric><pediatric obesity><poor sleep hygiene><population health><prevent><preventing><prospective><protective factors><psychosocial stresses><psychosocial stressors><public health priorities><racial><racial background><racial diversity><racial origin><racially diverse><resilience><resilient><response><risk for obesity><risk mitigation><risk of obesity><school disruption><screen time><severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 global health crisis><severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 global pandemic><stressor><television watching><trend><tv watching><unstable housing><unstably housed><weight control><weight management><youngster>