Environmental Influences of Weight Development

描述(由申请人提供)： 这项建议旨在为凯瑟琳·麦克蒂格博士提供分析技能和研究经验，使其成为一名专注于肥胖问题的预防医学的独立研究员。候选人将以她在临床流行病学和公共卫生方面的背景为基础，通过一项正式的课程计划，重点放在定量方法上，对关键主题领域进行独立研究，并由医学博士Lew Kuller和医学硕士FACP的Wishwa Kapoor等杰出研究人员进行指导研究。她将利用匹兹堡大学医学系、卫生保健研究中心和流行病学系的各种资源：这是发展跨学科卫生研究专业知识的理想环境。 McTigue博士的研究兴趣建立在内科和预防医学、公共卫生和生态系统生物学方面。她对人口动态的临床洞察力和知识创造了一种独特的视角来考虑干预的途径。在这个项目中，她将扩展她在纵向和空间分析、队列研究设计以及肥胖和健康行为主题内容方面的技能。她将把新的见解应用到干预发展中。 在美国，肥胖是一个重要的临床和公共卫生问题--特别是在女性中--具有流行趋势和严重的不利健康影响。目前的干预战略显然不够充分；越来越多的注意力集中在环境办法上。环境与健康行为或体重之间的横截面相关性已经被发现，但这些特征之间的纵向关系却知之甚少。这项研究将(1)通过将队列数据与其他关于社会和物理环境特征的全国性数据相联系，来检验环境因素与长期内美国年轻人的体重发展之间的关系，以及(2)通过检查对物理和社会环境的感知如何预期地影响匹兹堡女孩的健康行为和体重发展，来检验关于环境因素影响体重的机制的假设。通过确定体重发展中的关键环境特征，了解它们如何影响态度和健康行为，并了解它们如何因性别和种族而异，这项研究将有助于开发针对种族和性别特定风险的肥胖预防干预措施。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposal is designed to provide Dr. Kathleen McTigue with the analytic skills and research experience for becoming an independent researcher in preventive medicine with a focus on obesity. The candidate will build upon her background in clinical epidemiology and public health with a program of formal coursework focusing on quantitative methods, independent studies on key topic areas, and mentored research from accomplished researchers such as Lew Kuller, MD PhD, and Wishwa Kapoor, MD MPH FACP. She will utilize the diverse resources of the University of Pittsburgh's Department of Medicine, Center for Research on Health Care, and Department of Epidemiology: an ideal setting for developing expertise in interdisciplinary health research. Dr McTigue's research interests were founded in internal and preventive medicine, public health and ecosystem biology. Her clinical insight and knowledge of population dynamics create a unique perspective to consider pathways for intervention. In this project she will extend her skills in longitudinal and spatial analysis, cohort research design, and topic content in obesity and health behavior. She will apply new insights to intervention development. Obesity is an important clinical and public health concern in the US - particularly among women - with epidemic prevalence trends and significant adverse health effects. Current intervention strategies are clearly not adequate; increasing attention has focused on environmental approaches. Cross-sectional correlations between environment and health behaviors or weight have been found, but the longitudinal relationship between such features is poorly understood. This study will (1) examine the associations between environmental factors on weight development in a large national cohort of young US adults over extended time, by linking the cohort's data with other national data on social and physical environmental features, and (2) test hypotheses regarding mechanisms by which environmental factors influence weight by examining how perception of the physical and social environment prospectively affects health behaviors and weight development of Pittsburgh girls. By identifying key environmental features in weight development, understanding how they influence attitudes and health behaviors, and seeing how they differ with gender and ethnicity, this research will contribute to the development of obesity prevention interventions tailored to ethnic and gender-specific risk.