Why children are getting and what UB is - University at Buffalo

As principal investigator in a number
of studies (and collaborating with Epstein,
along with Samina Raja and Li Yin of the
School of Architecture and Planning faculty),
Roemmich found that “children and
adolescents who lived in neighborhoods
that provided greater access to parks were
more physically active.”
However, “that research didn’t answer
whether children were actually using the
parks to be physically active,” Roemmich
points out.
Further research showed that “adolescents
most frequently used their home lot,
their friend’s lots, parks and vacant lots
to get their physical activity.” Roemmich
and his team also are studying how park
design—such as the choice of play equipment
within parks—motivates children to
be physically active.
Adds Roemmich: “We are now studying
whether reducing access to television and
computer time by 50 percent within the
home encourages overweight adolescents
to go outside and be physically active, and
whether those who have access to neighborhood
parks find it easier to increase
their physical activity.”
At UB’s Childhood Weight Control
Program, which Epstein heads, one
research study combines healthier eating
behavior, innovative ways to increase
activity and behavior modification to help
overweight children between the ages of
8 and 12, and who have at least one overweight
parent, to lose weight and then
maintain a normal weight.
Breaking the cycle
In an especially innovative study, Teresa
Quattrin, UB professor of pediatrics and a
specialist in childhood endocrinology and
diabetes, is testing the effectiveness of a
treatment to be carried out at the pediatrician’s
office in collaboration with the
family and the child’s doctor. The aim is to
break the cycle of obesity in families.
Since children of overweight parents
are at risk to become overweight early in
life, and overweight children are at risk
of becoming obese adults, Quattrin has
shifted her focus to younger children. In
Western New York, she says, three out of
10 young children are close to being overweight
or are already overweight.
“In the summer of 2002, realizing that
the number of overweight children without
additional hormonal disorders was
increasing alarmingly, I decided to analyze
the data pertinent to the children referred
by Western New York pediatricians [to
the endocrinology clinic at the Women
and Children’s Hospital of Buffalo] over
the previous 10 years,” says Quattrin,
chief of service for pediatrics for Kaleida
Health. Serving also as interim chair of the
Department of Pediatrics, she points out
that the current project “would not be possible
without the critical mass of scientists
from the Department of Pediatrics, who
are invaluable collaborators.
“These data, among several things,
illustrated that there was a delay between
the time the child was becoming overweight
and the referral [by the pediatrician],”
Quattrin continues. “Growth data
provided by the pediatrician in about 251
children showed that more than 80 percent
of children who had been referred
to our endocrinology clinic had in fact
become overweight before school age.
“This was the point in my career when
I decided that our focus had to shift from
adolescence to early childhood. Also, it
became clear that we needed to involve the
family, and this was an ideal situation in a
young child who is still totally dependent
on his/her parents.”
Working with practices in the Buffalo
area that are affiliated with Women
and Children’s Hospital—Amherst
Pediatrics, Suburban Pediatrics and Hodge
Pediatrics—the researchers are investigating
whether the program can promote
weight maintenance or modest weight loss
in children ages 2 to 5 while the children
grow in height, and whether the child will
see a decreased percentage BMI over time.
Baby fat not ‘cute’
Changing eating and activity patterns also
are a part of the study. The preschool-age
children will be taught good eating habits
before they have to “unlearn” bad ones.
Parents will learn that a young child who
is rapidly gaining weight is at risk for
obesity, and that the problem needs to be
addressed—and not ignored or dismissed
because of cultural perceptions that “baby
fat is cute.”
“In this pioneer translational project,
pediatricians are playing a key role on the
team,” Quattrin explains. “They identify
young children when they are at risk for
[becoming] overweight, or are overweight,
and counsel the family that this is the
time they can benefit from the program.
“In cases when the child is at risk for
[becoming] overweight, maintaining the
weight will gradually make the child wellproportioned.
[But] if the child is already
overweight, weight loss is necessary while
the child grows in height.”
Another approach to the childhood
obesity problem explored at UB is how the
environment can influence food selection,
food intake and activity choices (physical
or sedentary) in both children and adolescents.
“More specifically, I am interested
in the effects of social influence on eating
and activities in overweight and non-overweight
youth,” Salvy explains.
“We’ve been conducting several studies
assessing how peer relationships, or
the lack thereof, impact youth’s eating and
physical activity. These studies indicate
that overweight youth (but not lean youth)
eat more when alone than when in the
presence of peers, and are also less physically
active when alone than when in company
of other youth,” Salvy says.
“In fact, we showed that the presence
of peer and friends can increase the value
of physical activity in overweight youth. In
other words, overweight youth are more
likely to engage in physically active leisure
activities when they have the opportunity
Global airing
for UB obesity
research
News outlets
from all over
the world
reported on
the study
conducted at UB by Leonard H. Epstein,
chief, Division of Behavioral Medicine,
Department of Pediatrics in the UB School
of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. It
revealed that watching TV and playing computer
games can lead to obesity in children
by reducing the amount of time they are
physically active.
The results of the study appeared in
the March 2008 issue of the Archives of
Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine, and were
picked up by U.S. news outlets, including
USA Today, the New York Times, New
York Daily News, Fox News, Denver Post,
National Public Radio, Bloomberg News,
Reuters, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune,
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, U.S. News &
World Report, Seattle Post Intelligencer and
United Press International.
The research also gained international
attention through media reports in India,
Canada, England, Australia, Scotland, Sri
Lanka, Thailand, New Zealand, Malaysia
and Estonia.
www.alumni.buffalo.edu UBTODAY Winter 2009 15