Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Influence of Infant-Caregiver Feeding Interactions on Diet, Growth and Metabolic Development

人类生物学的研究提供了证据，表明早期生活因素通过生物学机制塑造了后来的生活结果。本论文研究项目将调查早期生活的生理和营养方面与儿童和成人肥胖风险之间的联系，特别关注生命第一年的饮食、食欲和生长。研究结果将揭示婴儿时期什么样的饮食可以降低肥胖风险，以及帮助家庭做出更优饮食选择的社会因素。该项目解决了生活史理论中的基本问题，并将与肥胖率持续上升的美国人口的福祉相关。数据将与来自各种社会背景的家庭就儿童营养问题向其提供建议的临床从业人员以及侧重于改善幼儿及其家庭获得充足营养的政策制定者共享。该项目还将支持学生在本科和研究生阶段进行STEM研究培训。该项目整合了健康的社会决定因素和健康与疾病框架的发展根源，以调查社会背景如何影响获得营养和营养信息的机会，以及婴儿所经历的营养如何影响长期健康。它还使用发育利基的概念来探索照顾者对婴儿生长和家庭用餐时间互动的观察如何影响婴儿吃什么和怎么吃。调查人员将跟踪有3到12个月婴儿的拉丁裔家庭。人种学访谈将进行，以了解什么样的因素影响父母如何和什么喂养他们的婴儿。将收集调查和观察数据，以了解婴儿食欲和用餐时间的相互作用如何影响婴儿吃什么和吃多少。将收集生长激素和婴儿生长测量数据，以了解婴儿的饮食如何影响他们的生长和生长激素。将完成食欲激素分析，以了解食欲激素如何影响和受婴儿营养的影响。这些发现将阐明社会背景、家庭行为和婴儿生物学是如何相互交织在一起的，可能会影响肥胖风险。

Research in human biology has provided evidence that early life factors shape later life outcomes through biological mechanisms. This dissertation research project will investigate linkages between physiological and nutritional aspects of early life and the risk of childhood and adult obesity, with a specific focus on diet, appetite and growth during the first year of life. The results will shed light on what kinds of diets during infancy might reduce obesity risk, and on social factors that help families make more optimal dietary choices. The project addresses fundamental questions in life history theory, and will be relevant to the well-being of the US population, for which obesity rates continue to increase. Data will be shared with clinical practitioners who advise families from all types of social backgrounds about nutrition for their children, and policy makers who focus on improving access to adequate nutrition for young children and their families. The project will also support student training in STEM research at the undergraduate and graduate levels.This project integrates social determinants of health and developmental origins of health and disease frameworks to investigate how social contexts influence access to nutrition and information about nutrition, and how the nutrition infants experience shapes long-term health. It also uses the concept of the developmental niche to explore how caregiver observations of infant growth and family mealtime interactions influence what and how infants eat. The investigator will follow Latino families with young infants from 3 to 12 months of age. Ethnographic interviews will be conducted to understand what kinds of factors influence how and what parents feed their infants. Survey and observational data will be collected to understand how infant appetite and mealtime interactions influence what and how much infants eat. Growth hormones and infant growth measurements will be collected to understand how infants' diets influence their growth and growth hormones. Appetite hormone analysis will be completed to understand how appetite hormones influence and are influenced by infant nutrition. The findings will illuminate how social contexts, family behaviors and infant biology are intertwined in ways that may influence obesity risk.