Role of 3D Weight Progression Software in Weight Counseling to Decrease Weight-related Health Disparities Among Adolescent African-American Females

 描述(申请人提供)：儿童和青少年肥胖在美国是一种日益流行的疾病，特别是在少数族裔中。研究一再表明，非裔美国青年受肥胖症流行的影响不成比例，特别是非裔美国女孩。到2007-08年，几乎30%的黑人女孩患有肥胖症，这是按性别、种族或民族划分的所有年龄段中最高的。统计数据显示，50%的肥胖儿童成为肥胖的成年人，相关疾病治疗预计花费近1470亿美元。出于这些原因，卫生保健提供者、父母和青少年患者必须就儿童的体重和身体质量指数(BMI)轨迹有效地相互沟通。目前可用的唯一工具是体重和BMI百分位数图表，这需要接受这些人口标准，以及一定程度的健康素养和计算能力，这使得它们的使用非常有限。这项建议描述了一种有用的方法，不仅可以解释生长趋势，还可以在繁忙的临床实践中监测体重。它有可能显著缩小肥胖流行中观察到的差异，并通过促进更好的知识共享和更好地理解体重趋势、健康行为及其对青少年健康的影响，改善临床内外的体重管理咨询。提出了一种低成本的软件应用程序，使供应商能够立即展示对未来体重增加的预测，并更好地理解个人行为如何直接导致体重和BMI的变化。SBIR第一阶段将调查该软件应用的技术优点和可行性。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Childhood and adolescent obesity is a growing epidemic in the United States, especially among minorities. Research has repeatedly shown that African-American youth are disproportionately affected by the obesity epidemic, especially African-American girls. By 2007-08, almost 30 percent of black girls were obese, the highest prevalence of any age group by gender, race or ethnicity. With statistics indicating that 50% of obese children become obese adults, related illness treatments are projected to cost close to $147 billion. For these reasons, it is imperative that health care providers, parents, and adolescent patients effectively communicate with each another in regards to the child's weight and Body Mass Index (BMI) trajectories. The only tools currently available are weight and BMI percentile charts, which require both an acceptance of these population standards and a certain level of health literacy and numeracy which make their use very limiting. This proposal describes a useful method for not only explaining growth trends and but also monitoring weight in a busy clinical practice. It has the potential to significantly decrease the disparity observed n the obesity epidemic as well as to improve weight management counseling in and outside of the clinical setting by facilitating better knowledge sharing and improved comprehension of weight trends, health behaviors, and their impact on adolescence health. A low-cost software application is proposed to equip providers with the ability to immediately demonstrate prediction of future weight gain and provide a better understanding of how personal behaviors directly result in changes in weight and BMI change. The SBIR Phase I will investigate the technical merit and feasibility of the software application.