Research Description
Children in rural areas have poorer diet and engage in less activity than children in urban areas. As they grow into adults, obesity and type 2 diabetes also become more common in rural areas. Programs that help rural children eat well, be physically active, and stay healthy are needed. To make a difference, programs also need to involve the family and be easy to join. This study will test a child diet and activity program that is mailed to the family’s home. It has 16 activity kits, 9 calls with a coach, and other tools that can help. It will be compared to a science program to see how it changes diet and activity. This study will include 60 children in a rural Colorado community who speak English or Spanish. Both programs are 6 months long. They study will explore how families feel about the program, and see if it helps children eat better and be more active. Other rural communities will be invited to deliver the program after this study to test if it improves diet and activity in children over time. If it works, it can be shared with rural communities across the country to help the 13 million children at risk for poor diet, low activity, obesity, and diabetes.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?This project will help children in rural areas eat better and be more active so they stay at a healthy weight and do not get type 2 diabetes as teenagers.
If a person with diabetes were to ask you how your project will help them in the future, how would you respond?This program can help your children and children in your community be healthier so they do not get diabetes.
Why important for you, personally, to become involved in diabetes research? What role will this award play?Everyone needs to eat, but making healthy choices is hard! Being active every day is also hard. My goal is to help children, parents, and families make better choices so they can live better. This award will help develop and test a program to do just that.
In what direction do you see the future of diabetes research going?We know that our health behaviors can prevent diabetes. But we need programs that are engaging, exciting, and helpful to families so they can learn and apply what science has shown us. It's less about what needs to be done to prevent diabetes. It's now more about how to help people do that. Especially in today's food environment and wide use of media that keeps us from making healthy choices.