Nationwide effort to tackle racial disparity in childhood obesity

With childhood obesity rates steadily on the rise, many doctors and physicians are looking at research to determine the root causes and differences while patients are still young. New efforts to tackle racial disparities in childhood obesity are being put forward throughout the country, with the National Institutes of Health recently awarding researchers five million dollars to help study and break the obesity cycle. 

Researchers at the University of Minnesota, including Dr. Jerica Berge and Carolyn Bramante, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor of Medicine and Core Faculty Member in the Center for Pediatric Obesity Medicine, are looking at different methods to reduce stress and promote healthy eating. They test everything from positive text messages to utilizing community health workers to help create healthy meals and a healthy kitchen. If researchers can determine which methods work best, they can be implemented clinically and in the home in addition to medication and other treatments to provide a more holistic approach. Doctors and researchers both agree that the earliest intervention is best as obesity can cause long-term complications and metabolic issues, even into adulthood. To read the full article and to gain more information about the active study researchers at the University of Minnesota are working on, please follow this link.