Balancing the Risk and Benefits of Rapid Weight Gain in Infancy

描述（由申请人提供）：曼迪布朗贝尔福特，医学博士公共卫生硕士是一个在儿童医院波士顿和儿科讲师在哈佛医学院。K23指导职业发展奖的申请将结构化的指导和培训与详细的研究计划相结合。该提案的总体目标是培养贝尔福特博士成为一名独立的以患者为导向的研究人员，专注于早期生命生长和营养的长期结果。在足月婴儿中，婴儿体重快速增加与长期风险有关，如超重和高血压，但体重快速增加是否对早产儿同样有害尚不清楚。快速体重增加也可能是有益的，例如早产儿的神经发育;快速体重增加是否有益于足月人群的神经发育尚不清楚。更好地了解足月和早产儿人群中与婴儿体重快速增加相关的风险和获益平衡，将为这些人群中最佳婴儿体重增加模式的指南提供信息。对于这个奖项，贝尔福特博士的目标首先是评估肥胖相关的风险和神经认知的好处，在学龄与婴儿体重增加在2个大的，建立队列的足月和早产儿。然后，贝尔福特博士将建立一个决策分析模型，以估计足月和早产儿的最佳体重增加率，平衡肥胖相关风险与成年后的神经认知益处。这项研究计划直接建立在贝尔福特博士以前在流行病学和卫生服务研究方面的培训以及她在泌尿学方面的临床专业知识的基础上。她的研究结果将提供有关体重增加模式的关键信息，以优化足月和早产儿人群的长期健康。贝尔福特博士的独特资源包括一个支持性的、有成就的多学科导师团队;获得2个大型的、成熟的、纵向的足月和早产儿队列;以及流行病学和决策分析方面的高级课程。拟议的奖项将使贝尔福特博士作出实质性的科学贡献，并发展她作为一个独立的研究人员的职业生涯。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Mandy Brown Belfort, MD MPH is a neonatologist at Children's Hospital Boston and Instructor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. This application for a K23 mentored career development award combines structured mentorship and training with a detailed research plan. The overall goal of this proposal is to train Dr. Belfort for a career as an independent patient-oriented researcher focused on the long term outcomes of early-life growth and nutrition. In full term infants, rapid infant gain is associated with long-term risks, such as overweight and high blood pressure, but whether rapid weight gain is similarly harmful in preterm infants is unclear. Rapid weight gain may also be beneficial, for example to neurodevelopment in preterm infants; whether rapid weight gain benefits neurodevelopment in full term populations is poorly understood. A better understanding of the balance of risks and benefits associated with rapid infant weight gain in both full term and preterm populations would inform guidelines for optimal infant weight gain patterns in these populations. For this award, Dr. Belfort aims first to assess the adiposity-related risks and neurocognitive benefits at school age associated with infant weight gain in 2 large, established cohorts of full term and preterm infants. Dr. Belfort will then build a decision analytic model to estimate the optimal rate of weight gain for full term and preterm infants, balancing adiposity-related risks with neurocognitive benefits through adulthood. This research plan builds directly on Dr. Belfort's previous training in epidemiology and health services research and her clinical expertise in neonatology. Her findings will provide critical information regarding patterns of weight gain that optimize long term health in full term and preterm populations. Dr. Belfort's unique resources include a supportive, accomplished multi-disciplinary mentorship team; access to 2 large, established, longitudinal cohorts of full term and preterm children; and advanced coursework in epidemiology and decision analysis. The proposed award will enable Dr. Belfort to make a substantial scientific contribution and to develop her career as an independent investigator.