Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

WEBSITE: Discussion occurred about the website. A decision to revise the draft logo and reorganize the website components was made. There will be 2 sides- one accessible by the public and one for participants only.

MANAGEMENT: The attendees agreed to several protocols to enhance communications. Website administration, email communication, and data and publication protocols were adopted. Additional discussion ensued about being proactive about the group's work at future professional and association meetings.

SUB-COMMITTEE REPORTS: Group 1 - Much time was spent on deciding when, and how, to move this objective forward. It was decided that it would be best to determine what is happening and what is needed by those in the field now rather than waiting until results of the other objectives are gathered. It was noted that UT has surveyed 14 Extension Family and Consumer Sciences Agents about their knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs regarding the obesity prevention messages they teach. The following decisions were made to meet the milestones:

Key informants/experts will be targeted including those in CES (EFNEP & FSNE, professional & paraprofessional nutrition educators, 4H educators and parents, parent educators, early childhood/ human development educators)

Overall purpose: To support, reject or revise research-based suggestions of behaviors that influence child overweight

Details to investigate include: What behaviors do they consider important to target? What are they currently teaching? What methods are being used? What insights do they have that each behavior taught is relevant to their audience? Which components of resiliency are being taught?

Group 2 - Karen Spears presented a review of the group's work. The most significant outcome was the results of literature reviews: there is a lack of validated fitness measure for children under age 6, necessitating a revision in the original targeted age group. Two proposed outcomes will be (a) a formula could eventually be constructed to calculate a child's fitness. Included in the formula would be the child's (BMI + WC + BIA + fitness) divided by the parents' (BIA + BMI + WC + PACQ + fitness) along with assorted variables and constants; and (b) a Health Fit Home Kit that would help each family member determine her/his own fitness status.

Group 3 - Results of the pilot test were reviewed (see below). Revisions to the protocols were made to diminish participant bias in reporting. Preparations for the second pilot test were made.

LEGISLATIVE VISITS: 8 members walked to the Hill and visited 5 legislative offices to communicate about multi-state projects.

FUTURE FUNDING: Strategies were proposed for obtaining external funding for project work.

2008 MEETING: Chicago, October 28th (noon) until 5 PM October 30th.

In July, an ad-hoc informal group of W-1005 investigators attending the Annual Society for Nutrition Education meeting got together to discuss the project. In the 2-hour meeting, the logo design was discussed and plans were designed for the W1005 annual meeting to be held in Washington in Oct.

In order to help define resiliency in terms of child fitness (a Group 2 2007 milestone), Heidi Wengreen (UT), Anne Lindsay (NV), Melinda Manore (OR) and Karen Spears (NV) conducted literature reviews on physical activity surveys in children, physical fitness measurement methods for children and adults, body composition, and BMI and body composition, respectively. It was determined that there are no validated fitness measures for children under age 6, necessitating a revision in the original targeted age group of W-1005 from 4-10 to 6-10. In addition, NHANES data was selected to be used to select variables to include in a fuzzy-set-theory based model for defining obesity resiliency (a Group 2 2007 milestone).

Under the lead of NV, 6 states (NV, MI, NY, IN, NE, UT) interviewed 44 low-income mothers to determine their familiarity and use of guidelines to prevent childhood obesity, their thoughts on what other families do and what strategies might prevent childhood obesity (a Group 3 2007 milestone). Several graduate students, along with faculty members, conducted the interviews. All states received IRB approval. Nebraska is interviewing more mothers. Preliminary results suggest low-income mothers have doubts about whether other families can follow suggested obesity prevention guidelines and even if these guidelines will actually lead to obesity prevention in children. UT pilot-tested a food frequency card sort with children. Cards were similar to those used with mothers. This protocol will be included in Pilot Study 2 to gather feedback on feasibility of collecting information from the children about food selection independent of mothers' reports.

Nevada, along with IL, IN, MN, MI, NE, NM, NY, UT, submitted an NRI for funding work related to Group 3. Although reviewers thought the proposal was innovated, it was not funded.

Individual State Work

AZ - Healthy Active Kids Workshops - provides participants (teachers, parks & rec. 4-H or parent volunteers) resources for schools and communities to meet their wellness policy goals and increase physical activity and healthy food choices by youth and their families to reduce obesity.

Healthy Active Kids Initiative - by the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension integrates healthy lifestyles concepts into youth programs and classrooms.

DC - Variable Selection For Obesity Resilience - Professor Liang and Professor Yi Lu at the Prairie View A&M University have been working on a new methodology which is expected to help in the selection of variables from the overwhelming number of variables in the NHANES data. This new approach proposes hierarchical clustering for feature reduction and will be tested on the NHANES data. A graduate student is working as a programmer on this project. The result of this research will be brought to Group 2, for discussion and validation.

IA - Association Between Food Insecurity And Child Overweight Status - In a USDA funded study, ~8% of a sample of low-income children were found to be food insecure while 50% were at risk of overweight or overweight. Results indicated that the likelihood of being overweight or at-risk of overweight was not significantly different for food secure and food insecure children. However, food insecurity and overweight coexisted as about 1/4th of the food insecure children were overweight. In another study, statistical models indicted that a one unit increase in an index of economic stress leads to a 4.5% increase in a child's probability of being at-risk of overweight or overweight and a 7.4% increase in a child's probability of being overweight. This increase was primarily due to financial stressors (e.g., parents falling behind in paying bills and having to borrow money from friends or relatives) and community stressors (e.g., quality of housing in neighborhood). An examination of the role of economic stress may lead policymakers to consider ways to modify programs (e.g., TANF and the EITC) that address the economic constraints that low-income households face in securing enough food and maintaining a healthy diet.

Type 2 Diabetes In Youth - Over one-third of 500 4th and 5th graders in rural Iowa schools were found to be overweight. These results were used to alert healthcare providers and third-party payers of the prevalence of obesity among youth in Iowa along with the corresponding risk of type 2 diabetes.

IL - Received IRB approval for conducting pilot studies in 2008.

IN - Conducted 11 interviews in the Pilot Study for Group 3.

KY - Healthy Weight Task Force, a collaborative team across disciplines has been formed to address the needs of Kentuckians. All Extension agents are using local, state, regional and national trends in regard to maintaining a healthy weight for their 4-year Plans of Work. A freshman seminar course on Food, Society and a Healthy Weight was delivered to 25 students. Three tenure-track faculty have been hired to address physical fitness, nutrition, and healthy weight. Weight the Reality Series resulted in 1/3rd of participants (in 51 counties) losing e5% of body weight. Successful losers measured and controlled portions, drank more water, and walked at least 30 minutes 5 days a week.

MI - Conducted 7 in-depth interviews as part of the Pilot study for Group 3. MI AES provided funding to 1 PhD student to assist with the interviews.

NE - Conducted 19 in-depth interviews (8 included in the pilot study) to evaluate dietary practices used in homes, testing a card sort method for determining practices that have been connected with childhood resilience or non-resilience to obesity. All but 5 were from urban areas and all but 1 were women, including 11 Black, 7 Caucasian, I Hispanic. Two graduate students (1, PhD and 1 MS) collected the data.

NV - In addition to leading and participating in Groups 2 and 3, NV faculty have been designing All 4 Kids, a nutrition and fitness program for preschoolers, their parents and their childcare providers, and conducting an evaluation of community-based obesity interventions and the built environment to support food intake and physical activity behavior change. OR Contributed to the literature review for Group 2, by identifying methods and terms used to define obesity in children and adults.

NY - Interviewed 5 families for the pilot study Group 3. Additionally, the Cornell University Program on Breast Cancer and Environmental Risk Factors shared (on its website and also in a Cornell NutritionWorks course) assessment tools and procedures used in studies involving an environmental approach to obesity prevention.

SC - In order to gather information for defining 'Resilience,' the South Carolina researcher attended the National Health and Livability Summit'07 (sponsored by National Research and Park Association), the 2007 Pediatric Nutrition Symposium organized by ADA, and the ADA Nutrition and Food Expo'07. She was interviewed by the US International Radio: Voice of America (VOA) in Washington DC about W-1005 project and its future implications on healthy living for the US and world children. One graduate and three undergraduate students are working in this project.

UT - Four faculty members and one graduate student met bi-monthly to discuss W1005. One graduate student Interviewed 5 families for the pilot study. H. Wengreen developed a picture-sort survey method designed to help children ages 4-10 accurately report the foods and drinks that they consumed the previous day. Foods and drinks queried will include those asked of the mothers. The information provided by the children will be used to corroborate information gathered from the mothers.

WA - Training Child Care Professionals and Parents for Prevention of Childhood Obesity - This NRI-funded project intends to develop a multi-media web site with resources and training modules to instruct child care providers in healthy eating, physical activity, and prevention of obesity in young children. Seven focus group interviews were conducted (n= 39). Among the findings, providers expressed concerns about their interaction with parents regarding children's healthy eating, and barriers to children's physical activity at child care.

Plans for 2008 include:

WEBSITE: Update website using SharePoint software

SUB-COMMITTEE WORK: all work is related to identified milestones

GROUP 1: Design qualitative questions to be piloted at SNE in July 2008.

GROUP 2: Conduct a survey (using the W1005 website) to determine what can be done at current CES sites; and initiate a pilot study to begin measuring variables being considered for the fuzzy-set theory modeling. AZ is taking the lead in designing the survey. All participating W1005 universities will measure body composition using DEXA; bod-pod; BMI, bioimpedence, and calipers

GROUP 3: Interview analyses of the first pilot study will be completed, with results presented at professional meetings and a manuscript written and submitted. Second pilot testing of parent interviews will begin in Feb 2008 after modifications to protocols are approved by all IRBs. Additionally, a child card sort protocol (developed in UT) will be tested. Efforts to obtain external funding will continue.

Garasky, S., J., Stewart, S., Gundersen, C., Lohman, B. J., & Eisenmann, (2007, November). Food insecurity, economic stressors, and childhood obesity. Paper presented at the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management Annual Research Conference, Washington, DC.

Gundersen, C., & Lohman, B. J., Eisenmann, J., Garasky, S., & Stewart, S. D. (in press). Lack of association between child-specific food insecurity and overweight in a sample of 10-15 year old low-income youth. Journal of Nutrition.

Lasley, E.C.K., & Litchfield, R.E. (2007). Type 2 Diabetes Among Youth: Prevalence and Awareness. Journal of the American Dietetic Association 107(8 Supplement 3): A-32.

Presentations Healthy Active Kids, Sharon Hoelscher Day, et al. Poster presentation at the Research Frontiers in Nutritional Sciences Conference, Tucson AZ, Oct 22-23, 2007.

Lasley, E.C.K., & Litchfield, R.E. (2007, October). Type 2 Diabetes Among Youth: Prevalence and Awareness. Poster presentation at Food and Nutrition Conference and Exhibition of the American Dietetic Association. Philadelphia, PA.

Lasley, E.C.K., & Litchfield, R.E. (2007, November). Type 2 Diabetes Among Youth: Prevalence and Awareness. Poster presentation at Iowa Dietetic Association Annual Meeting. Ames, IA.

Litchfield, R.E., & Thomas, K. (2007, November). School Wellness Policies Update. Oral presentation at Iowa Dietetic Association Annual Meeting. Ames, IA.