Patient Oriented Research and Mentorship in Childhood Obesity Disparities

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Project Abstract Childhood obesity represents a substantial burden on morbidity and is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Racial and ethnic minorities and children from disadvantaged backgrounds suffer a disproportionate share of the national obesity burden. Despite availability of proven-effective interventions for childhood obesity management, effective interventions are underutilized and there remains a substantial gap in the adoption of evidence-based practices in settings that care for low-income children and populations with high burden of social risk factors. This K24 renewal application will support equity-focused implementation research to improve the adoption of effective childhood obesity interventions among clinicians and families and reduce obesity disparities among low-income, racial/ethnic minority children. This application will take advantage of a newly-funded, NHLBI R01 implementation research grant to optimize integration of the Connect for Health pediatric weight management intervention in pediatric primary care settings. With NHLBI funding, we are testing key adaptations and strategies that will support the implementation of Connect for Health across health care systems in Massachusetts that deliver care to low-income children. K24 funding will allow the PI and her mentees to extend and amplify the NHLBI study by examining a new adaptation: use of social- and neighborhood risk-informed obesity care plans to increase the effects of childhood obesity interventions on obesity outcomes. The overall goals of this K24 renewal application are to provide Elsie Taveras MD, MPH with protected time to serve as a mentor to junior clinical investigators in their progress toward becoming independent patient-oriented investigators, and to support new scientific aims that will build upon Dr. Taveras’s established work on childhood obesity, health disparities, and equity-focused implementation science. Dr. Taveras is Professor of Pediatrics and Nutrition at Harvard Medical School and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and a pediatric obesity specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital for Children. She leads several large patient-oriented research studies including a NHLBI-funded implementation study that will serve as the basis for her proposed aims. Dr. Taveras has already successfully served as a research mentor to more than 40 MD and PhD candidates and clinicians in training. Her original K24 focused on understanding the contextual roots of childhood obesity disparities and developing interventions to prevent and manage obesity. This K24 renewal award is a natural extension of this work and will shift focus to translational studies and implementation science. The K24 renewal will heighten Dr. Taveras’s research productivity in the area of childhood obesity disparities and help foster the careers of junior childhood obesity scientists through her mentorship. The proposed scientific aims of this K24 application will serve to strengthen Dr. Taveras’s ability to provide mentorship to junior investigators in patient-oriented research, with an emphasis on equity-focused implementation research to improve adoption and effects of childhood obesity interventions.