Understanding and Addressing Food Insecurity and Obesity Among Infant-Parent Dyads

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ABSTRACT The proposed K23 Career Development Award will enable Dr. Colin Orr to become an independent physician- researcher with expertise in food insecurity and childhood obesity prevention. Dr. Orr is a general pediatrician whose long-term goal is to design, test, and implement interventions to address food insecurity and promote optimal nutrition and healthy weight gain in children. His strong methodologic background, combined with his experience and knowledge of health disparities among racial and ethnic minority groups, makes him an ideal candidate to conduct the proposed research. Dr. Orr’s preliminary work has described the cross-sectional impact of food insecurity on parent feeding behaviors and child health outcomes. Dr. Orr’s research will contribute to the science of obesity prevention by examining the longitudinal relationships, if any, between food insecurity, parental feeding behaviors, and childhood obesity. Specifically, his proposed research has the following aims: 1) To examine the association between change in food insecurity and change in parental feeding behaviors in a cohort; 2) To assess parents’ knowledge, attitudes and understanding of feeding behavior and food insecurity, and how these relate to childhood obesity; and, 3) To develop the NCCARE360+Peer Parent Coach (PPC) intervention and conduct a pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT) that evaluates the intervention’s feasibility and acceptability. The pilot study will serve as preliminary data for a subsequent R01. To conduct this research, Dr. Orr has assembled a team of mentors and collaborators who will guide him in accomplishing the following training goals: 1) Learn casual inference, longitudinal analysis, and qualitative methods to examine how food insecurity influences child health over time and acquire the skills to design and execute qualitative studies to guide intervention development; 2) Learn behavior change theories to inform development of a peer support intervention; and 3) Gain training in implementation science to guide implementation of interventions. Dr. Orr’s mentorship team will meet with him regularly, provide additional content expertise in writing manuscripts and R01 and equivalent grants, and will ensure his progress toward his research aims and training goals. Dr. Orr’s career development will be supported by coursework at the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Orr’s work aligns with the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases Strategic Plan to support research that aims to prevent chronic diseases, such as obesity and diabetes, in racially and ethnically diverse patient populations. His proposed research has high potential for public health impact, given the high prevalence of food insecurity and childhood obesity and the urgent need for well-designed interventions to address these problems in racial and ethnic minority populations. The proposed K23 award will enable Dr. Orr to take important next steps in his career development and position him as an independent investigator with expertise in testing, implementing, and evaluating innovative solutions to address food insecurity and obesity in children.