College Student Weight Gain: Identifying Opportunities for Cancer Prevention

描述(申请人提供)：这份K07申请的目的是建立一个有指导的研究和培训经验，以促进肥胖和癌症预防方面的独立专业发展，特别是关注在大学青年中体重超标的未被研究的领域。本申请由明尼苏达大学(流行病学和社区健康分部)提交，该大学在Dianne Neumark-Sztainer博士、Robert Jeffery和Mary Story博士的指导下，为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)提供了一个丰富的跨学科环境。具体地说，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方面的专业知识，(3)加强我对健康行为理论的理解，建立使我能够有效地将流行病学工作与未来专注于大学肥胖和癌症预防的干预研究联系起来的技能。为了实现这些目标，我的培训将包括各种活动，包括课程作业和辅导性研究。该奖项的目的反映了NIH路线图倡议的目标，不仅是在提供跨学科研究方面的培训和指导经验，而且还在支持公共卫生领域的转化性研究，为弥合流行病学和干预研究之间的差距的职业奠定了基础。我的有指导的研究计划特别寻求找出大学生超重的重要可改变决定因素，方法是在一个学年内跟踪调查一大批本科生。调查答复还将与客观的环境评估挂钩(例如，对食物环境和体力活动资源的衡量)。通过这项研究，我们有一个重要的机会来检查居住在美国第二大公立大学或附近的大量大学生的超重增加、相关的健康行为及其个人、环境和社会决定因素。这项研究的最终目标是确定可作为未来R01的基础的干预目标，包括开发可在广泛的美国大学校园内使用的环境和在线评估工具。

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.