Interdisciplinary Training in Maternal and Child Obesity

描述(申请人提供)：我们建议一个博士前培训项目，名为“母婴肥胖(MCOB)培训”，其重点是母婴超重和肥胖。肥胖已被确定为世界性流行病和公共卫生优先事项。肥胖是一个复杂的健康问题，其原因从细胞和分子到社区和社会因素都有。解决肥胖问题需要一种密集的跨学科方法。拟议的培训赠款的首要目标是培训新一代研究人员，为他们提供关于这种多因素疾病的跨学科视角。该培训计划对肥胖症的研究采取了生命过程的观点，重点关注肥胖症在特别脆弱时期的发展。作为培训者的25名教职员工代表了公共卫生、医学、护理、新闻和大众传播学院以及北卡罗来纳大学教堂山分校的艺术和科学学院的12个系。培训计划将受益于北卡罗来纳大学教堂山分校的严重肥胖研究计划，该计划包括NIH路线图资助的跨学科肥胖中心(IDOC)、NIDDK资助的临床营养研究中心(CNRC)以及其他强大的研究中心，如CDC资助的健康促进和疾病预防中心(HPDP)和卡罗莱纳人口中心(CPC)。拟议的培训计划之所以脱颖而出，是因为它(1)以跨学科、生命历程的方法解决母婴超重和肥胖问题，(2)专注于环境因素以及与体育活动和饮食相关的个人行为，(3)强调将营养、生物化学、生理学、遗传学和流行病学的基本知识和发现整合和转化为肥胖症的行为和环境方法；以及(4)优秀的教师导师，他们将在肥胖症研究中发挥卓越的榜样作用。培训将包括肥胖症和体力活动方面的专门课程、母婴肥胖症研究方面的强有力的指导、参加重点和跨学科研究的机会以及持续举办的与肥胖症有关的系列研讨会。肥胖症在美国和全球都被认为是一个主要的健康问题。缺乏训练有素的博士，他们对肥胖有广泛的理解，并在特定的社会、行为、基础科学、生物医学和公共卫生领域接受过培训。我们的目标是开始培养解决这一问题的下一代学者。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): We propose a predoctoral training program, entitled "Maternal-Child Obesity (MCOB) Training" whose focus is maternal and child overweight and obesity. Obesity has been identified as a worldwide epidemic and public health priority. Obesity is a complex health problem with causes ranging from cellular and molecular to community and societal factors. Addressing obesity requires an intensive interdisciplinary approach. The overarching goal of the proposed training grant is to train a new generation of researchers, providing them with an interdisciplinary perspective on this multifactorial disease. The training program takes a life course perspective on the study of obesity, focusing attention on the development of obesity at particularly vulnerable periods. The 25 faculty serving as trainers represent 12 departments in the Schools of Public Health, Medicine, Nursing, Journalism and Mass Communication, and the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The training program will benefit from UNC Chapel Hill's strong obesity research program that features a NIH Roadmap-funded Interdisciplinary Obesity Center (IDOC), an NIDDK-funded clinical nutrition research center (CNRC), and other strong research centers such as the CDC-funded Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Center (HPDP) and the Carolina Population Center (CPC). The proposed training program stands out because of its (1) interdisciplinary, life course approach in addressing maternal and child overweight and obesity, (2) focus on environmental factors as well as individual behaviors related to physical activity and diet, and (3) emphasis on integration and translation of basic knowledge and discoveries from nutrition, biochemistry, physiology, genetics, and epidemiology, to behavioral and environmental approaches to obesity; and (4) outstanding faculty mentors who will serve as role models for excellence in obesity research. Training will consist of specialized courses in obesity and physical activity, strong mentoring in maternal and child obesity research, opportunities to participate in focused and interdisciplinary research and a strong ongoing obesity-related seminar series. Obesity is recognized as a major health problem in the US and globally. There is a dearth of well-trained individuals with doctorates who have a broad-based understanding of obesity along with training in specific social, behavioral, basic science, biomedical and public health fields. Our goal is to begin to train the future generation of scholars for tackling this problem.