College Student Weight Gain: Identifying Opportunities for Cancer Prevention

描述（由申请人提供）：本K 07申请的目的是建立一个指导的研究和培训经验，以促进肥胖和癌症预防的独立专业发展，特别是专注于大学青年中体重增加不足的领域。本申请由明尼苏达大学（流行病学和社区卫生部）提交，该大学提供了丰富的跨学科环境，以建立正在进行的癌症预防研究（例如，通过能量学和癌症跨学科研究中心）在Dianne Neumark-Sztainer博士、Robert Jeffery博士和玛丽故事博士的指导下进行。具体来说，我确定了三个需要实现的职业发展目标：（1）建立流行病学调查发展和领导/指导数据收集工作的技能，（2）继续发展行为流行病学和流行病学分析的专业知识，（3）加强我对健康行为理论的理解，建立技能，使我能够有效地将流行病学工作与未来的干预研究联系起来，重点是大学肥胖和癌症预防。为了实现这些目标，我的培训将包括各种活动，包括课程作业和指导研究。该奖项的目的反映了NIH路线图计划的目标，不仅提供跨学科研究的培训和指导经验，而且支持公共卫生竞技场的转化研究，为弥合流行病学和干预研究之间的差距的职业生涯奠定基础。我的指导研究计划，特别是旨在确定重要的可修改的决定因素，在大学生体重增加过多，通过以下一个学年的本科大学生的大队列。调查答复还将与客观环境评估联系起来（例如，食物环境和体力活动资源的措施）。通过这项研究，我们有重要的机会来研究过量的体重增加，相关的健康行为及其个人，环境和社会决定因素，在一个大的人口的大学生生活或附近的美国第二大公立大学。最终目标是确定可能作为未来R 01基础的干预目标，这项研究包括开发环境和在线评估工具，可在美国大学校园内广泛使用。

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.