Research Description
Childhood obesity is a major public health challenge of the 21st century. As a result, obesity-related conditions are becoming increasingly common among children, such as prediabetes and type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes develops more rapidly in children, and many children present diabetes-related complications shortly after their diagnosis. Therefore, it is important to identify new strategies to prevent type 2 diabetes in this population. Dietary habits during childhood are promising targets, yet we have little knowledge on their causal effects on type 2 diabetes risk in youth. In this study, we will aim inform answers to the following questions: How does diet (such as frequency of consumption of sugar sweetened beverages, of fast food, or of fruits and vegetables) impact type 2 diabetes risk markers during childhood and adolescence? Do dietary habits impact type 2 diabetes risk markers in girls vs. boys differently? And do these habits impact children with a high vs. low genetic risk for type 2 diabetes differently? We will undertake this study with data from Project Viva, a cohort of mothers and their children followed for 20 years. Our findings will inform new strategies based on dietary habits to prevent prediabetes and type 2 diabetes in youth. Furthermore, our findings will help us understand which specific dietary habits interventions would work better between girls and boys and between youth with high vs or low genetic risk, which will enable the development of dietary interventions in youth tailored to sex and genetic risk.Research Profile
What area of diabetes research does your project cover? What role will this particular project play in preventing, treating and/or curing diabetes?My project examines how dietary habits are associated with type 2 diabetes markers from early childhood to late adolescence. I will also investigate whether dietary habits have a different impact among boys and girls, and in youth with a high vs. low genetic predisposition to type 2 diabetes. Findings from this project will help identify new personalized dietary strategies for the prevention of type 2 diabetes in youth.
If a person with diabetes were to ask you how your project will help them in the future, how would you respond?This project will help the next generations of kids by identifying strategies based on dietary habits to prevent or delay the development of type 2 diabetes. This work will contribute directly to the well-being of youth by reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes in the future and ultimately prevent the development of associated complications and mortality.
Why important for you, personally, to become involved in diabetes research? What role will this award play?I have devoted the last eight years to better understanding obesity, insulin resistance, and type 2 diabetes in youth through research. Almost one out of five youth has prediabetes in the US, and type 2 diabetes is particularly aggressive in youth. I believe prevention of type 2 diabetes in children is paramount and I intend to employ all my efforts into this research. The fellowship award will allow me to concentrate all my work on diet and prevention of type 2 diabetes in youth for the next three years. I will learn novel techniques to assess causal relationships between diet and type 2 diabetes, and to investigate how a child's genetics interacts between diet and type 2 diabetes.
In what direction do you see the future of diabetes research going?Regarding youth health, I believe that more research in personalized preventive medicine is needed to understand why some strategies work better in some individuals than others and use this knowledge to provide personalized, efficient recommendations. Another aspect will be to study how we can better implement knowledge into clinical practice and the development of public health policies for the prevention of diabetes in youth.