Project 3: Isolating food insecurity to understand childhood health outcomes and biological mechanisms of risk

项目总结/摘要 在美国，粮食不安全影响到七分之一有孩子的家庭， 影响到以妇女和少数民族为首的群体。粮食不安全与儿童肥胖、哮喘、 焦虑、抑郁和行为问题，从而造成健康差距。而食品 不安全感可能会通过影响饮食而导致健康状况不佳，这种简单化的理解可能会导致 掩盖了压力的影响-那些独特的童年，如不良的童年经历，包括 产妇抑郁症，以及那些通常与贫困的经验。通知 粮食不安全最终影响儿童身心健康结果的机制， 这项研究将把粮食不安全的影响与贫困的影响分开，并审查对饮食的影响， 生物标志物，体重增加，情绪和行为，同时考虑其他童年逆境。具体地说， 通过独特的夏季膳食供应干预，拟议的项目将隔离的经验， 来自罗德岛州普罗维登斯低收入家庭的8-12岁儿童的粮食不安全。在伙伴关系与 大普罗维登斯的基督教青年会和普罗维登斯的健康社区办公室，我们将招募100名 两个夏天的孩子。完成基线评估后，受试者将随机分配至 粮食不安全或粮食安全群体。随机分配到食物不安全组的儿童将经历 自然发生的夏季粮食不安全，并收到一份关于社区资源的每周通讯， 预计不会影响粮食安全。那些被随机分配到粮食安全组的人将保持粮食安全 在夏季，通过每周收到五份符合营养标准的早餐和午餐， 这个年龄段的需求。主要终点包括饮食质量，代谢综合征的生物标志物， 炎症、压力、BMI z分数、儿童行为、焦虑和抑郁的测量 症状我们还将探讨照顾者的情绪和压力对食物对健康的影响 不安全感最终，这项研究的结果将澄清粮食不安全影响的机制。 儿童健康成果，并告知如何更有效地防止粮食不安全。他们还将提供 为Evans博士（PI）的R 01应用和进一步培训奠定了基础，以建立独立的研究 职业生涯的重点是了解饮食在预防弱势青年健康差距方面的作用。

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Food insecurity affects one in seven households with children in the United States and disproportionately impacts those headed by women and minorities. Food insecurity is associated with childhood obesity, asthma, anxiety and depression and behavioral problems, and thus contributes to health disparities. While food insecurity likely contributes to poor health through its effect on diet, such a simplistic understanding likely obscures the effects of stress – those unique to childhood, such as Adverse Childhood Experiences including maternal depression, as well as those generally associated with the experience of poverty. To inform the mechanisms by which food insecurity ultimately affects physical and mental health outcomes in children, this study will disentangle the effects of food insecurity from those of poverty and examine effects on diet, biomarkers, weight gain, mood and behavior while considering other childhood adversities. Specifically, through a unique summertime meal provision intervention, the proposed project will isolate the experience of food insecurity in children, ages 8-12 years, from low-income households in Providence, RI. In partnership with the YMCA of Greater Providence and the Healthy Communities Office in Providence, we will recruit 100 children over two summers. After completing a baseline assessment, participants will be randomized to the Food Insecure or Food Secure groups. Children randomized to the Food Insecure group will experience the natural onset of summertime food insecurity and receive a weekly newsletter on community resources that is not expected to affect food insecurity. Those randomized to the Food Secure group will remain food secure over the summer through receipt of weekly shipments of five breakfast and lunch meals that meet the nutrition needs of this age group. Primary endpoints include diet quality, biomarkers of Metabolic Syndrome, inflammation, and stress, BMI z-scores, and child measures of behavior and anxiety and depression symptoms. We will also explore the impact of caregiver mood and stress on the health effects of food insecurity. Ultimately, findings from this research will clarify the mechanisms by which food insecurity affects child health outcomes and inform how to more effectively prevent food insecurity. They will also provide the foundation for an R01 application and further training for Dr. Evans (PI) to establish an independent research career focused on understanding the role of diet in the prevention of health disparities in disadvantaged youth.