A UT professor recently published a study showing that the obesity epidemic could start at a young age.
Hollie Raynor, assistant professor of nutrition, conducted a study on the nutrition and leisure activities of young children, which she published in the January-February issue of the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior.
According to the study, many young children aren’t meeting current recommendations for eating and leisure-time behavior.
“We found that most kids are not meeting recommendations, but that the younger, pre-school-aged kids appeared to have slightly healthier eating and leisure-time activity patterns than the school-aged children,” Raynor said.
The study included 174 children between the ages of 2 and 12.
Parents were asked to fill out questionnaires about their child’s eating habits and leisure activities. The heights and weights of the children were obtained from medical records.
The parents of preschool-aged children with healthy weights also reported that their children watched fewer hours of TV on weekends. But, overall, there was little difference between those aged 2 to 5 and those aged 6 to 12, after the habits were examined by researchers.
The study also found that the consumption of fast food is not the only leisure activity related to obesity. This could be a consequence of poor diet quality and inactivity that was reported by the parents in the study.
“It might suggest to anyone that they really need to be aware of their eating and leisure-time activities and how it fits into current recommendations,” Raynor said.
Raynor has worked in the university’s nutrition department since fall 2007. She earned her Masters of Science in public health nutrition at UT, as well as a Ph.D in clinical psychology at the University of Buffalo.
The research was not funded by UT because the study was conducted in 2004, before Raynor was employed there.
“We had funding from NIH and the American Diabetes Association to do two childhood obesity intervention studies,” Raynor said.
With Raynor back in Tennessee, UT students will benefit from the knowledge gained. The nutrition curriculum is constantly being updated with new data found in researches like this one.
Jay Whelan, head of the nutrition department, said the university, as a Research-1 institution, tries to take a comprehensive look at new information.
“One of our goals as a Research-1 institution is to create new knowledge, not just summarize existing or archival information,” Whelan said. “We should be the people who provide the information for the textbooks, not the people who only get their information from textbooks.”
Marsha Spence, assistant research professor of nutrition, said this research “allows students to gain insight into the most current evidence.”
She said she tries to include a variety of resources in her 100-level nutrition class.
“We use research articles, current research and the latest research news to enhance the curriculum,” she said.
According to Whelan, that’s “the beauty of a Research-1 institution.”
“The students in the classroom get the latest information, even prior to publication, many times,” Whelan said. “It should be a treat for them to be exposed to the cutting edge of nutrition research. It would be for me.”
Whelan said Raynor’s research was a success.
“Determination as to what works and what doesn’t work is critical,” Whelan said. “Many times programs are developed and implemented based on the current knowledge, but follow-up to determine successful outcomes is not always linked to the intervention. Dr. Raynor’s research deals with the follow-up as to what works and what doesn’t.”
Whelan went on to explain another reason that the research is important for the university.
“Public policy and research guidance by federal, state and private agencies use our information to determine where new research dollars need to be invested,” Whelan said. “We provide those services through our research.”
