College Student Weight Gain: Identifying Opportunities for Cancer Prevention

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The purpose of this K07 application is to build a mentored research and training experience to foster independent professional development in obesity and cancer prevention, specifically focusing on the understudied area of excess weight gain among college youth. This application is submitted from the University of Minnesota (Division of Epidemiology and Community Health), which provides a rich, interdisciplinary environment to build off of ongoing cancer prevention research (e.g., through the Center for Transdisciplinary Research on Energetics and Cancer) under the mentorship of Drs. Dianne Neumark-Sztainer, Robert Jeffery, and Mary Story. Specifically, I have identified 3 career development goals to be fulfilled: (1) to build skills in epidemiological survey development and in leading/directing data collection efforts, (2) to continue to develop expertise in behavioral epidemiology and epidemiologic analysis, (3) to strengthen my understanding of health behavior theory, building skills that will allow me to effectively link epidemiological work with future intervention research focusing on college obesity and cancer prevention. To achieve these goals, my training will include a variety of activities, including coursework and mentored research. The aims of this award reflect the goals of the NIH Roadmap initiatives, not only in providing training and mentored experience in interdisciplinary research, but also in supporting translational research in a public health arena, setting the foundation for a career that bridges the gap between epidemiology and intervention research. My mentored research plan specifically seeks to identify important modifiable determinants of excess weight gain in college students, by following a large cohort of undergraduate college students through one academic year. Survey responses will also be linked to objective environmental assessments (e.g., measures of the food environment and physical activity resources). Through this research, we have the important opportunity to examine excess weight gain, related health behaviors and their individual, environmental, and social determinants in a large population of college students living on or near the second largest public US university. With the ultimate goal of identifying intervention targets that may serve as the basis for future R01s, this research includes developing environmental and online assessment tools that may be used within a wide range of US college campuses.