Progress 07/01/11 to 06/30/16
Outputs
Target Audience:Target Audience The main target audiences of this project have included (1) academics engaged in population health research, (2) public health researchers and policy makers, and (3) clinical physicians and other health practitioners. Results from this project have also reached the general public through media outlets such as the Economist and NBC Nightly News. Changes/Problems:Changes/Problems The main problem encountered during this study period was the apparent termination of a peer-reviewed public health journal published by the University of Utah Medical School (Utah's Health: An Annual Review). In the past, this journal provided a quality outlet for UAES-supported health research specific to Utah and the Intermountain West. Assuming the journal is not reestablished, I will need to find alternative outlets for future research on local health issues. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Opportunities This project has provided excellent training, mentorship and networking opportunities for two M.S. graduate students (Emily Bennett and Carlyn Graham) and three Ph.D. students (Andrew Burger, Sun Jeon and Miranda Reiter) in the Sociology program. In addition, last year I incorporated an honors undergraduate student (Megan Jensen) into new research on sleep-obesity associations among preschool-aged children. I have worked closely with all of these students on research pertinent to this UAES project, providing them with guidance and training on data management and analysis, literature reviews and articulation of research aims, scientific writing, and dissemination of research through conference presentations and peer-reviewed publications--including top journals such as the Journal of Sleep Research and Social Science and Medicine. Also, these collaborative research projects have enabled my students to connect and work with highly regarded health scholars and methodologists at USU and across the nation. Ultimately, these professional experiences have led to quality career opportunities, including faculty appointments (e.g., Miranda Reiter was hired as a tenure-track assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke) and research positions (e.g., Emily Bennett was hired as an environmental epidemiologist at the Utah Department of Health). How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Dissemination This research has been disseminated to target audiences through invited research presentations at the American Aging Association and the American Sociological Association, as well as refereed presentations and publications at several different academic conferences and journals. This includes research presentations at the Associated Professional Sleep Societies (SLEEP), the Population Association of America, the Gerontological Society of America, and the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities. Notable publications include studies appearing in Social Science and Medicine, Current Diabetes Reports, the International Journal of Obesity, the American Journal of Public Health, the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, and the British Journal of Nutrition. In addition, my research colleagues and I worked with media when appropriate to disseminate our findings to the U.S. and international publics through outlets such as NBC Nightly News, the Economist, Scientific American, the Atlantic, and NHS Choices. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Plan of Work This UAES project is now complete. However, I am attempting to expand research initiated through this award through other funding mechanisms, such as the National Institutes of Health.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Accomplishments This UAES project was designed to use existing data to provide epidemiological surveillance of the U.S. obesity epidemic, explore the determinants of obesity, and trace the health consequences of obesity. Major activities to achieve these aims included complex data management and statistical analyses of population-based longitudinal studies, such as the National Health Interview Survey with Mortality Follow-Up (NHIS-F), the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS), and the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health). In several investigations of these aims, my colleagues and I used cutting-edge statistical approaches. For example, to preserve statistical power and limit bias in a study on ethnic differences in sleep-obesity associations among U.S. adolescents, I applied multiple imputation methods in analyses of Add Health data. In another study of NHIS-F data, we used innovative hierarchical age-period-cohort (HAPC) models with cross-classified random effects as well as event-history analyses to study the impact of obesity on U.S. mortality. In subsequent studies, I led teams of scholars to defend the use of HAPC models through simulation modeling and the appropriate use of model selection statistics. Through the statistical approaches employed through these studies, I achieved several key objectives, including the following important research findings: First, I discovered significant ethnic variability in sleep-obesity associations among U.S. adolescents, with the strongest effects observed among Hispanic, non-Hispanic white and Asian boys. Second, I contributed to research detecting poorer nutritional choices (e.g., frequent fast food consumption) among adolescents with habitually short sleep duration. Third, I participated in a study showing that repeated exposures to short sleep duration adolescents have strong, statistically significant dose-response associations with obesity in young adulthood. Fourth, I contributed to research showing that nearly 1-in-5 deaths in the U.S. are attributable to obesity, after accounting for cohort differences in obesity prevalence and age variation in obesity-mortality associations. Fifth, I was lead investigator on two studies showing that HAPC models accurately reproduce true variability in age, period and cohort patterns (e.g., with respect to obesity prevalence) when a handful of key assumptions are satisfied (e.g., none of these patterns are perfectly linear). Sixth, I contributed to an investigation which found that socioeconomic disadvantage in late adolescence is associated with significantly elevated odds of obesity in midlife among women. Finally, I led research exploring how short sleep duration could moderate the effects of obesity on the physical and psychological health of adolescents. Our findings indicate that short sleep and obesity are independent rather than synergistic risk factors, with sleep being more influential for psychological outcomes such as depression, and obesity having a stronger impact on physical health indicators such as hypertension. These research findings have changed the state of knowledge about the extent of obesity and its consequences in the population (e.g., with respect to obesity prevalence and associated mortality risks among newer birth cohorts), and also with respect to key determinants of obesity, particularly sleep duration and related dietary behaviors.
Publications
|
Progress 10/01/14 to 09/30/15
Outputs
Target Audience:Target Audience Target audiences for the past year included (1) academics engaged in population health research, and (2) public health researchers and policy makers at various levels of government. Changes/Problems:Changes/Problems My first UAES project objective (obesity surveillance) continues to be on hold for 2016, as (1) my plan of work with respect to the second and third research objectives presents ample opportunities and challenges, and (2) I continue to explore alternative peer-reviewed journals for Utah-based health research, as my main outlet for such research in the past (Utah's Health: An Annual Review) has not published since 2011. I am in contact with stakeholders at the University of Utah about this issue, and hope that UH-Review will resume publishing local public health research in the near future. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Opportunities Over the past year, this UAES project has provided outstanding training and mentorship opportunities Sun Jeon and Andrew Burger, both advanced Ph.D. students in the Sociology program at Utah State University. For example, Mr. Burger, who is currently employed as a social research scientist by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, was a contributor and coauthor on our study published in the Journal of Sleep Research. In addition, Sun Jeon utilized her Ph.D. training in Sociology and concurrent M.S. training in Statistics to assist with simulation analyses that were used to defend hierarchical age-period-cohort models in our commentary response at Social Science and Medicine. Ms. Jeon also contributed to our study on the effects of obesity on wellbeing among young adults in the U.S. These projects have provided hands-on research experience for Andrew and Sun, connecting them to capable scholars at USU and across the nation. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Dissemination In 2015, results from this body of research were disseminated through professional research conferences and leading academic journals. For example, our study on dose-response associations between short sleep and obesity was published in the Journal of Sleep Research. Over the past year, studies supported by this project were also published in Social Science and Medicine and Current Diabetes Reports. In addition to these publications, our study entitled "Sleep, Obesity and the Physical and Psychosocial Wellbeing of Young Adults in the United States" was presented at SLEEP 2015, the 29th Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies in Seattle, Washington. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Plan of Work My research over the next academic year will continue to focus on the second and third objectives outlined in my UAES project. For the second objective (determinants of obesity), I will work with Dr. Claire Yang (UNC-Chapel Hill) and colleagues to revise and expand an ongoing study of how U.S. dietary and physical activity trends may underlie APC patterns of obesity among adult participants in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys. I will also work with Dr. Patrick Krueger (University of Colorado at Denver) and colleagues to examine whether bedtime is an independent risk factor (net of sleep duration and other possible confounders) for the development of obesity among U.S. adolescents. I am also excited to begin a new project with Dr. Dipti Dev at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to study the determinants of obesity among young children, and potentially design, implement and assess interventions for nutrition, sleep and other key variables in preschool settings. With respect to the third objective (consequences of obesity), I will continue ongoing work with Dr. Krueger and colleagues to estimate associations between cumulative exposure to obesity throughout adolescence and physical and psychosocial wellbeing in young adulthood.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Accomplishments In the past academic year, my UAES research activities have focused primarily on exploration of the determinants of obesity (UAES project objective 2), with some work also tracing the consequences of obesity for the health of the U.S. population (UAES project objective 3). With respect to the second objective on the determinants of obesity, we examined longitudinal associations between short sleep duration and obesity using four waves of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. Through this research spanning more than a decade, we were the first to explore the cumulative effects of short sleep duration throughout adolescence on the subsequent risk of obesity. Whereas previous research (mostly cross-sectional) has tended to detect weak associations, we discovered strong and statistically significant dose-response associations between exposures to short sleep duration during adolescence and the odds of obesity in young adulthood, indicating that sleep plays a more prominent role in the etiology of obesity than previously believed. Also pertaining to objective 2, we conducted a major review study that explored a variety of determinants of racial and ethnic disparities in obesity, including behavioral factors (such as sleep duration), contextual factors (such as neighborhood conditions) and biological factors (such as epigenetic inheritance). Although more research is needed to quantify the relative influence of each mechanism, we conclude that future interventions and social policies should: (1) consider the context where obesity occurs most frequently, such as low-income neighborhoods; (2) enhance flexible resources such as knowledge and beneficial social connections; and (3) devote special attention to early life interventions that have shown tremendous promise in eradicating obesity disparities in the U.S. In addition, I led a team of scholars from across the nation to provide a strong, empirically-rooted defense of innovative hierarchical age-period-cohort (HAPC) models with cross-classified random effects. Subsequently, I expanded this team further to provide additional evidence in favor of the method. Through simulation methods, these studies show that when model selection statistics are utilized to ensure that three temporal dimensions exist in the data and the statistical assumptions of HAPC modeling are satisfied, the method effectively recovers the true age, period and cohort effects found in the underlying data structure. These methods are pertinent to the second objective, because scholars have previously used HAPC models (including some of my own UAES-supported research) to show that more recent birth cohorts are at elevated risk for obesity, after controlling for age and period effects. With respect to the third objective on the health consequences of obesity, I led a study that found significant effects of obesity on the physical and psychosocial wellbeing of young adults in the United States. Our findings were novel because they were the first to explore how short sleep duration could moderate the effects of obesity on wellbeing in this population. To this point, our findings suggest that short sleep and obesity are independent risk factors, with sleep being more influential for psychosocial outcomes (e.g., depression) and obesity having a stronger impact on physical health (e.g., hypertension).
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2015
Citation:
Journal Articles
Krueger, P. M., Reither, E. N. (2015). Mind the Gap: Race/Ethnic and Socioeconomic Disparities in Obesity. Current Diabetes Reports, 15(11), 1-9.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2015
Citation:
Journal Articles
Reither, E. N., Land, K. C., Jeon, S. Y., Powers, D. A., Masters, R. K., Zheng, H., Hardy, M. A., Keyes, K. M., Fu, Q., Hanson, H. A., Smith, K. R., Utz, R. L., Yang, Y. C. (2015). Clarifying Hierarchical Age-Period-Cohort Models: A Rejoinder to Bell and Jones. Social Science and Medicine, 145, 125128.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2015
Citation:
Refereed Journal Articles
Krueger, P. M., Reither, E. N., Peppard, P. E., Burger, A. E., Hale, L. (2015). Cumulative exposure to short sleep and body mass outcomes: a prospective study. Journal of Sleep Research, 24(6), 629638.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2015
Citation:
Refereed Journal Articles
Reither, E. N., Masters, R. K., Yang, Y. C., Powers, D. A., Zheng, H., Land, K. C. (2015). Should age-period-cohort studies return to the methodologies of the 1970s? Social Science & Medicine, 128, 356-365
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2015
Citation:
Presentations
Reither, E. N., Krueger, P. M., Peppard, P. E., Jeon, S. Y., Hale, L., SLEEP 2015, the 29th Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, "Sleep, Obesity and the Physical and Psychosocial Wellbeing of Young Adults in the United States," Seattle, Washington. (June 2015)
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2015
Citation:
Presentations
Jeon, S. Y., Reither, E. N., Population Association of America, "Application of a Classification Method for Studies of Allostatic Load," San Diego, California. (May 2015)
|
Progress 10/01/13 to 09/30/14
Outputs
Target Audience: Target Audience Target audiences for the past year included (1) academics engaged in population health research, and (2) public health researchers and policy makers at various levels of government. The general public was also reached via media coverage of my study published in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior. Changes/Problems: Changes/Problems My first UAES project objective (obesity surveillance) is on hold for 2015, as (1) my plan of work with respect to the second and third research objectives presents ample opportunities and challenges, and (2) I consider alternative peer-reviewed journals for Utah-based health research, as my main outlet for such research in the past (Utah's Health: An Annual Review) has not published since 2011. http://www.matheson.utah.edu/Annual_Review/UHReview/index.html What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Opportunities This project has provided training and mentorship opportunities for three Ph.D. students over the past year (Andrew Burger, Sun Jeon and Miranda Reiter). For example, Dr. Reiter, who graduated from our program in August 2014 and is now a postdoctoral fellow at Sam Houston State University, was a contributor and coauthor on our study published in the International Journal of Obesity. Andrew Burger, who is currently employed as a social research scientist by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, assisted with our response letter published in the American Journal of Public Health. As Sun Jeon pursues her Ph.D. in Sociology and a concurrent M.S. in Statistics, she is learning cutting edge methodologies with the potential to improve forecasts of the health and longevity of the U.S. population. These projects have all provided hands-on research experience for Miranda, Andrew and Sun, and connected them to capable scholars at USU and across the nation. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Dissemination Results from this body of research have been disseminated directly through professional research conferences and peer-reviewed academic journals, and also indirectly through media exposure. For example, our study on the life-course determinants of obesity was published in the September 2014 issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior. Results from this study were subsequently disseminated to the general public via national and international media sources, such as The Atlantic, Huffington Post Canada, Science World Report, and a featured segment on KVUE Television. In 2014, studies supported by this project were also published in the International Journal of Obesity and the British Journal of Medicine, and a response letter was published in the American Journal of Public Health. In addition to these publications, our study entitled "A Longitudinal Examination of Cumulative Short Sleep and Body Mass throughout Adolescence and Early Adulthood" was presented at the 2014 Population Association of America conference in Boston, MA. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Plan of Work My research over the next academic year will continue to focus on the second and third objectives outlined in my AES project. For the second objective (determinants of obesity), I will work with Dr. Patrick Krueger (University of Colorado at Denver) and colleagues to revise our study on cumulative exposure to short sleep duration during adolescence and the risk of obesity in young adulthood, and submit it for publication at a peer-reviewed journal. In addition, I will work with Dr. Ken Land (Duke University), Dr. Ryan Masters (University of Colorado) and others to publish research defending age-period-cohort (APC) methodologies in epidemiology and the social sciences, especially as they pertain to investigating the determinants of obesity. Related to this research, I will work with Dr. Claire Yang (UNC-Chapel Hill) and colleagues to complete a study of how U.S. dietary and physical activity trends may underlie APC patterns of obesity among adult participants in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys. With respect to the third objective (consequences of obesity), I will work with Dr. Krueger and colleagues to estimate associations between cumulative exposure to obesity throughout adolescence and physical and psychosocial wellbeing in young adulthood. I also will continue to work with Ms. Sun Jeon and colleagues to develop cutting edge projection methods to forecast future mortality trends in the United States.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Accomplishments In the past academic year, my UAES research activities focused primarily on exploration of the determinants of obesity (UAES project objective 2), with some effort also devoted to tracing the health consequences of obesity in the U.S. population (objective 3). With respect to objective 2, I was first author of a study published by the International Journal of Obesity that investigated the effects of short sleep duration on body mass among U.S. adolescents. Our analyses of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) showed that short sleep duration does not account for racial/ethnic disparities in obesity. However, the impact of short sleep varies for boys and girls from different racial/ethnic groups, with especially strong sleep-BMI associations among Hispanic, non-Hispanic white and Asian boys. Also pertaining to objective 2, I co-authored an article in the British Journal of Nutrition that used Add Health data to examine how poor sleep hygiene affects dietary choices. Our study found that short sleep duration was associated with reduced odds of vegetable and fruit consumption and increased odds of fast food consumption, even after adjustment for potential socioeconomic and behavioral confounders. In another investigation relating to the second objective, I co-authored an article in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior on the life-course determinants of obesity. By applying a series of longitudinal structural equation models to data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, our study found that socioeconomic disadvantage at age 18 is related to elevated odds of obesity in midlife, especially among women. For the third objective, I coauthored a response letter in the American Journal of Public Health that defended methodological decisions in our 2013 study of obesity-attributable mortality in the U.S. population. I also worked with a Ph.D. student (Sun Jeon) to develop preliminary "three-dimensional" age-period-cohort ARIMA models to project future mortality rates for causes of death strongly influenced by obesity.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2014
Citation:
Burger, A. E., Reither, E. N. (2014). A New Methodology for Estimating Seasonal Influenza Vaccination Rates in the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) and the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). Vaccine, 32(31), 3950-4.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2014
Citation:
Kruger, A., Reither, E. N., Krueger, P. M., Peppard, P. E., Hale, L. (2014). Do sleep-deprived adolescents make less healthy food choices? British Journal of Nutrition, 111(10), 1898-1904
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2014
Citation:
Masters, R. K., Reither, E. N., Powers, D. A., Yang, Y. C., Burger, A. E., Link, B. G. (2014). Masters et al. Respond. American Journal of Public Health, 104(4), e5-e6.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2014
Citation:
Pudrovska, T., Reither, E. N., Logan, E. S., Sherman-Wilkins, K. J. (2014). Gender and Reinforcing Associations between Socioeconomic Disadvantage and Body Mass over the Life Course. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 55(3), 283-301.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2014
Citation:
Reither, E. N., Krueger, P. M., Hale, L., Reiter, E. M., Peppard, P. E. (2014). Ethnic Variation in the Association between Sleep and Body Mass among U.S. Adolescents. International Journal of Obesity, 38(7), 944-9.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2014
Citation:
Reither, E. N. (Author Only), Burger, A. E. (Author Only), Hale, L. (Author Only), Peppard, P. E. (Author Only), Population Association of America, "A Longitudinal Examination of Cumulative Short Sleep and Body Mass throughout Adolescence and Early Adulthood," Population Association of America, Boston, MA. (May 2014)
|
Progress 01/01/13 to 09/30/13
Outputs
Target Audience: Target audiences for the past year included (1) academics engaged in population health research, (2) public health researchers and policy makers at various levels of government, including the state of Utah and (3) clinical physicians. The general public was also reached via extensive media coverage of my study published in the American Journal of Public Health. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? This project has provided training and mentorship for three graduate students over the past year, one M.S. student (Emily Bennett) and two Ph.D. students (Andrew Burger and Sun Jeon). For example, both Ms. Bennett and Mr. Burger provided assistance with the formative stages of a research project on sleep and obesity trends among adolescents in the state of Utah. These research opportunities have helped both students find employment; Ms. Bennett is now an epidemiologist at the Utah Department of Health, and Mr. Burger is a social research scientist by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. In addition, Mr. Burger provided essential assistance with data quality issues and coauthored our study that appeared in October in the American Journal of Public Health. This research opportunity connected Mr. Burger to some of the top social epidemiologists and demographers in the nation. Similarly, Sun Jeon is currently working with me to develop new mortality projection models that account for the population impacts of the obesity epidemic. This project is enabling Sun to connect with several top scholars, and to develop cutting-edge methodological abilities with respect to APC modeling and ARIMA projection techniques. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Results from this body of research have been disseminated directly through professional research conferences and peer-reviewed academic journals, and also indirectly through significant media exposure. For example, our findings on the effects of obesity on U.S. adult mortality were published in the October 2013 issue of the American Journal of Public Health. Results from this study were subsequently disseminated to the general public via national and international media sources, such as American Scientist, Time, Newsweek, Forbes, NIH Choices, Irish Independent, and a featured segment on NBC’s Nightly News with Brian Williams. Several other papers were submitted for publication at peer-reviewed journals; a handful are currently under revise and resubmit status, and two were recently accepted for publication in the British Journal of Nutrition and the International Journal of Obesity. In addition, research related to this project was presented at several professional conferences, including SLEEP 2013 (sponsored by the Associated Professional Sleep Societies) the Population Association of America and the Gerontological Society of America. Our presentation at SLEEP generated considerable media exposure, including articles at Inside Higher Ed and Science Daily. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? With respect to the first UAES project objective (obesity surveillance), I plan to recruit a graduate student to help continue my research on sleep and obesity trends among adolescents in the state of Utah. Along with the graduate student, I will conduct descriptive and associational analyses of data from multiple years in the Youth Behavior Risk Surveillance System, a product of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For the second objective (determinants of obesity), I plan to continue research with Dr. Tetyana Pudrovska at Penn State University that examines how childhood body mass and socioeconomic conditions in childhood affect obesity during midlife. This will involve supplementing our structural equation models with new analyses that account for unobserved heterogeneity in our sample, most likely through the adoption of propensity score matching techniques. I also plan to continue working with Dr. Patrick Krueger (University of Colorado at Denver) and others to examine how cumulative short sleep duration through adolescence affects the risk of obesity in young adulthood. This will involve compiling several years of Add Health data, implementation of multiple imputation procedures, and conducting new analyses. Finally, I will continue research that uses cutting edge projection methods to estimate future trends in life expectancy in the United States. This will involve data management and analysis with Ms. Sun Jeon, and manuscript preparation with Dr. Claire Yang (University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill) and Dr. S. Jay Olshansky (University of Illinois-Chicago).
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
In the past academic year, my UAES research activities focused primarily on exploration of the determinants of obesity (UAES project objective 2), and tracing the consequences of obesity for the future longevity of the U.S. population (objective 3). I also conducted preliminary epidemiological surveillance of obesity and potentially related sleep patterns among adolescents in Utah with data from the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (objective 1). With respect to the second project objective, I contributed to research on the effects of short sleep duration on food choices among U.S. adolescents, using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). Our research shows that, consistent with theory and some extant research, insufficient sleep contributes to poor dietary choices among adolescents, even after controlling for demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. I also continued to improve and revise research on ethnic variation in the effects of short sleep on body mass using Add Health data (e.g., by addressing missing data issues in our study with multiple imputation analyses). This study shows that, while short sleep duration is a risk factor for obesity in the general U.S. adolescent population, this overall association is driven by especially strong effects among non-Hispanic white, white and Asian boys. With respect to the third project objective, I co-authored a study on the effects of the obesity epidemic on U.S. mortality, using data from the National Health Interview Survey with mortality follow-up data. Our study showed that obesity makes a larger contribution to U.S. mortality than previously believed. According to our investigation, which for the first time accounts for birth-cohort effects and age variation in the obesity-mortality association, nearly 1-in-5 deaths in the U.S. is attributable to obesity.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2013
Citation:
Masters, R. K., Reither, E. N., Powers, D. A., Yang, Y., Burger, A., Link, B. G. (2013). The Impact of Obesity on US Mortality Levels: The Importance of Age and Cohort Factors in Population Estimates. American Journal of Public Health, 103(10), 1895-1901.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2013
Citation:
Tetyana, P. (Presenter & Author), Reither, E. N. (Author Only), Logan, E. (Author Only), Gerontological Society of America, "Gender and the Reciprocal Effects of Socioeconomic Disadvantage and Obesity over the Life Course," Gerontological Society of America, New Orleans. (November 2013)
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2013
Citation:
Jeon, S. Y. (Presenter & Author), Reither, E. N. (Presenter & Author), International Union for the Scientific Study of Population, "A Demographic Evaluation of Increasing Rates of Suicide Mortality in Japan and South Korea, 1985-2010," International Union for the Scientific Study of Population, Busan, South Korea. (September 2013)
|
Progress 01/01/12 to 12/31/12
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Over the past academic year, I have participated in several research projects that are supported by UTA00849 (The Distribution and Determinants of Obesity: National, Regional and State-Level Analyses). As results emerge from this body of research, they are routinely disseminated to appropriate target audiences. For example, this year I worked with Ryan Masters (Columbia), Bruce Link (Columbia), Yang Yang (UNC Chapel Hill) and others to use data from the National Health Interview Surveys with linked mortality files to estimate the proportion of U.S. mortality attributable to obesity. Along with Andrew Burger (a Ph.D. student in Sociology at USU), we presented our research findings at peer-reviewed conferences including the Population Association of American and the American Association of Aging. In addition to this work on the consequences of obesity for the future health and longevity of the U.S. population, I continued to conduct research that explores the determinants and disparities of obesity. For example, with the assistance of Patrick Krueger (CU-Boulder), Lauren Hale (Stony Brook University), Paul Peppard (Wisconsin), and Miranda Reiter (Ph.D. student, USU), I have examined associations between short sleep duration and body mass (and obesity-related behaviors) among U.S. adolescents. We have disseminated findings from this body of research at peer-reviewed conferences, including the Population Association of America and the 2012 Science of Eliminating Health Disparities Summit, sponsored by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities. PARTICIPANTS: Yang Yang (University of Chicago), S.Jay Olshansky (University of Illinois-Chicago), Ryan Masters (Columbia University), Rebecca Utz (University of Utah), Norman Waitzman (University of Utah) TARGET AUDIENCES: The main target audiences of this research include (1) academics engaged in population health research, (2) public health researchers and policy makers at various levels of government, including the state of Utah and (3) clinical physicians. Where appropriate, the general public will also be targeted through appropriate media outlets. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
Since January 1, 2012, outcomes that have emerged from this body of research include the following changes in knowledge: First, our research indicates that associations between obesity and mortality grow stronger with age when birth cohort membership and survey selection biases are taken into consideration, contrary to some previous work suggesting that elevated BMI might be protective at later ages. Second (and related to the previous point), we have found that obesity accounts for a larger proportion of U.S. mortality than indicated by some recent studies that have not accounted for health variability among U.S. birth cohorts. Third, this program of research has revealed that short sleep duration encourages poor food choices and elevated BMI among U.S. adolescents. Although prior research has found sleep-BMI associations, we have extended those findings - showing that they are much more pronounced among non-Hispanic white, non-Hispanic Asian and Asian girls than other groups of adolescents. All of these findings have been well-received at top-caliber research conferences, but the ultimate public health impact of this body of research is yet to be determined.
Publications
- Utz, R. L., Reither, E. N., & Waitzman, N. J., (2012). Prenatal Care, Childhood Obesity, and Ethnic Health Disparities: Analyses from a Unique Population Database: Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, 23(1): 302-320. (Published).
- Fedor, T. N., Berry, E. H., & Reither, E. N.. Black & White (2012) Disparities in Low Birth Weight: The Effect of Rural Residency: Journal of Health and Social Behavior. (Submitted).
- Reither, E. N., Krueger, P., Hale, L., Reiter, M., & Peppard, P. 2012. Racial/Ethnic Variation in the Association between Sleep and Body Mass among U.S. Adolescents: International Journal of Obesity. (Revising to Resubmit).
- Masters, R. K., Reither, E. N., Powers, D. A., Yang, Y., Burger, A., & Link, B. G.. U.S. 2012 Adult Mortality Associated with Overweight and Obesity: American Journal of Public Health. (Submitted).
|
Progress 01/01/11 to 12/31/11
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Over the past academic year, I have participated in several research projects that are supported by UTA00849 (The Distribution and Determinants of Obesity: National, Regional and State-Level Analyses). As results emerge from the body of research, they are routinely disseminated to appropriate target audiences. Recently for example, I have worked with Ryan Masters (a RWJF postdoc at Columbia University) to help identify data problems with BMI variables in the Integrated Health Information System (IHIS) - a compilation of over three decades of data from the National Health Interview Surveys (NHIS). Along with Andrew Burger (a Ph.D. student in Sociology at USU), we have isolated a series of inconsistencies in these data sources and developed a strategy to implement correction procedures. These measures will then serve as a cornerstone for a broader research project that reexamines the impact of obesity on U.S. mortality, using data from the NHIS mortality follow-up database. This project dovetails with collaborative research on "three-dimensional" mortality projection with S. Jay Olshansky (University of Illinois-Chicago) and Yang Yang (University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill). Over the past year, I presented results from our research (which show that younger birth cohorts in the U.S. are in jeopardy of reduced life expectancy) at the annual research conferences of the American Sociological Association and the Gerontological Society of America. I also acceded to interview requests from several different local and national media organizations, including The Economist (for details on the resulting article, see http://www.economist.com/node/18898399). In addition to these studies on the consequences of obesity for the future health and longevity of the U.S. population, I continued to conduct research that explores the determinants and disparities of obesity. For example, in conjunction with Rebecca Utz and Norman Waitzman (both professors at the University of Utah), I investigated the effect of prenatal care on obesity trajectories, and how the tendency for mothers from certain ethnic groups (e.g., Native Pacific Islanders) to delay the onset of prenatal care may help explain relatively high rates of adult obesity in those groups. PARTICIPANTS: Yang Yang (University of Chicago), S.Jay Olshansky (University of Illinois-Chicago), Ryan Masters (Columbia University), Rebecca Utz (University of Utah), Norman Waitzman (University of Utah) TARGET AUDIENCES: The main target audiences of this research include (1) academics engaged in population health research, (2) public health researchers and policy makers at various levels of government, including the state of Utah and (3) clinical physicians. Where appropriate, the general public will also be targeted through appropriate media outlets. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
Since July 1, 2011 (the start date for this AES project), outcomes that have emerged from this body of research include the following: First and foremost, the change in knowledge resulting from my research to develop a "three-dimensional" technique of mortality projection (which, as noted elsewhere, has been disseminated through research conferences and a publication) has already begun to produce a change in the actions of prominent health agencies. For example, a recent World Health Organization publication on health governance for the 21st Century states, "Anticipatory governance for health can be based on new methods of health forecasting. As Reither et al. (2011) stated, we should move from a two-dimensional to a three-dimensional model of health forecasts...three-dimensional models include the accumulated health experience of people who are now alive, which more accurately reflect the health challenges to be addressed and thus provide a better basis for decision-making." Second, along with new colleagues at Columbia and elsewhere, I have contributed to research that corroborates our three-dimensional model and challenges conventional wisdom in demography - namely that the obesity epidemic will have a mortality impact sufficient to limit future gains and perhaps even reverse progress in life expectancy. As evidence mounts that obesity threatens to limit and even reverse life expectancy, it will encourage government agencies and public health organizations to alter obesity-relevant programs and policies, as evidenced through the World Health Organization's recent report.
Publications
- UTAO+0849 Reither, E. N., Olshansky, S. J., & Yang, Y., (2011). New Forecasting Methodology Indicates More Disease And Earlier Mortality Ahead For Today's Younger Americans: Health Affairs, 30`(8). (Published).
- UTAO+0849 Glass, C. M., Reither, E. N. (2011). Heavy in School, Burdened for Life. The New York Times. (Published).
|
Progress 01/01/10 to 12/31/10
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Over the past academic year, I have participated in a number of research projects that are supported by UTA00849 (The Distribution and Determinants of Obesity: National, Regional and State-Level Analyses). As results emerge from the body of research, they are routinely disseminated to appropriate target audiences. For instance, along with S. Jay Olshansky (University of Illinois-Chicago) and Yang Yang (University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill), I reviewed cutting-edge literature and examined heart disease mortality data in the U.S. to show how the obesity epidemic could eventually reverse life expectancy in the U.S. via its effects on younger birth cohorts. As part of this study, I contrasted traditional "two-dimensional" linear extrapolation techniques of life expectancy forecasting with a "three-dimensional" technique that accounts not only for age- and period- trends, but also birth cohort patterns. In addition, I continued to work with Rebecca Utz and Norman Waitzman (both at the University of Utah) on analyses of the Utah Population Database to examine how factors such as prenatal care and school wellness initiatives might help prevent obesity among Utah's children and adolescents. The results of this study were presented at the American Public Health Association conference, which was held in Denver, Colorado in November, 2010. Also, along with Theresa Fedor (a M.S. graduate of our program, now a Ph.D. student at the University of Pennsylvania) and E. Helen Berry (Utah State University), I examined the impact that place of residence has on racial/ethnic disparities in birth weight. Results from this study were presented at the Population Association of America conference, which was held in Dallas, Texas in April, 2010. Finally, along with Erin Ruel (Georgia State University), Stephanie Robert (University of Wisconsin-Madison) and Paula Lantz (University of Michigan-Ann Arbor), I continued to analyze data from the Americans' Changing Lives Study to determine the extent to which neighborhood factors might account for racial and ethnic disparities in obesity. PARTICIPANTS: Robert M. Hauser (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Karen C. Swallen (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Yang Yang (University of Chicago), Stephanie A. Robert (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Paula Lantz (University of Michigan-Ann Arbor), Erin Ruel (Georgia State University), S.Jay Olshansky (University of Illinois-Chicago). TARGET AUDIENCES: The main target audiences of this research include (1) academics engaged in population health research, (2) public health researchers and policy makers at various levels of government, including the state of Utah and (3) clinical physicians. Where appropriate, the general public will also be targeted through appropriate media outlets. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
Over the past academic year, three important outcomes have emerged from this body of research. First and foremost, colleagues and I demonstrated the superiority of a "three-dimensional" mortality projection technique that utilizes age-period-cohort modeling, in comparison to a standard "two-dimensional" counterpart based on simple linear extrapolation. The essential "take home" message of this exercise is that commonly accepted methods for forecasting the future of health and longevity may severely underestimate the detrimental effect of the U.S. obesity epidemic, because they do not account for variability in health across birth cohorts (including the high prevalence of obesity among recent generations of Americans). To illustrate, whereas the linear projection technique estimated that heart disease mortality would decline to 50 per 100,000 by 2007 among males aged 45-49, the age-period-cohort technique estimated that it would stabilize around 100 per 100,000, which was a much closer approximation to the observed rate of 94.5 in 2007. Second, colleagues and I showed that the very high prevalence of obesity among Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders (NHOPIs) can be explained in part through the late initiation of prenatal care that is endemic in this group. These findings suggest that the prevalence of obesity may be reduced in this at-risk population via targeted prenatal care programs. Third, colleagues and I discovered that racial/ethnic disparities in low birth weight are especially pronounced in rural areas, suggesting that minority populations in these areas may require targeted public health interventions.
Publications
- Glass, C., Haas, S., Reither, E. 2010. The Skinny on Success: Body Mass, Gender and Occupational Standing Across the Life Course. Social Forces, 88:1777-1806.
- Ruel, E., Reither, E.N., Robert, S.A., Lantz, P. 2010. Neighborhood effects on BMI trends: Examining BMI trajectories for Black and White women. Health & Place, 16:191-198.
|
Progress 01/01/09 to 12/31/09
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Over the past academic year, I have participated in a number of research projects that are supported by UTA00849 (The Distribution and Determinants of Obesity: National, Regional and State-Level Analyses). As results emerge from the body of research, they are routinely disseminated to appropriate target audiences. For instance, along with Rebecca Utz and Norman Waitzman (both at the University of Utah), I examined data from the Utah Population Database to determine how prenatal care in the first trimester might help prevent the intergenerational transfer of obesity. The results of this study were presented at the American Public Health Association, which was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in November, 2009. Also, along with Christy Glass (USU) and Steven Haas (Arizona State University), I examined how adolescent obesity differentially impacted the career trajectories of men and women in the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study. Results from this study were presented at the Sociology Seminar Series at the University of Utah in February, 2009. PARTICIPANTS: Robert M. Hauser (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Karen C. Swallen (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Yang Yang (University of Chicago), Stephanie A. Robert (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Paula Lantz (University of Michigan-Ann Arbor), Erin Ruel (Georgia State University), S.Jay Olshansky (University of Illinois-Chicago). TARGET AUDIENCES: The main target audiences of this research include (1) academics engaged in population health research, (2) public health researchers and policy makers at various levels of government, including the state of Utah and (3) clinical physicians. Where appropriate, the general public will also be targeted through appropriate media outlets. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Although this body of research is subject to changes in certain details (e.g., the particular databases used to accomplish a particular research objective), the objectives delineated in the original research proposal are still satisfactory summaries of the intended goals of this project.
Impacts
Over the past academic year, three important outcomes have emerged from this body of research. First, through analyses of data from 1.7 million participants in the 1976-2002 National Health Interview Surveys, I determined that birth cohort mechanisms independently contributed to the U.S. obesity epidemic, net of period and age effects. Importantly, this study showed that newer birth cohorts of Americans have experienced "double-jeopardy," in which period and cohort-related mechanisms have independently increased their odds of obesity. The study recommends that policymakers develop cohort-specific interventions to help combat the U.S. obesity epidemic. Second, I contributed to a study that estimated the influence of neighborhood disadvantage on body mass trajectories among a sample of non-Hispanic Black and White women in the Americans' Changing Lives (ACL) study. Our analyses of ACL data showed that racial disparities in body mass widened over time, but were only marginally affected by neighborhood disadvantage at baseline. However, models were misspecified without the inclusion of community-level variables, signaling to other researchers the importance of their inclusion in future studies. Third, I led a team of graduate student researchers at USU to examine the influence of educational attainment on diabetes in Utah. Our analyses of data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System showed that diabetes increased by 44% in Utah between 1996-99 and 2004-07. Furthermore, our analyses showed that well-educated Utahan adults were least likely to develop diabetes over this period of observation, but that these disparities neither widened nor narrowed significantly. Based on our findings, we recommend that policymakers and other public health stakeholders take measures to reduce high school dropout rates, encourage labor force participation, ameliorate poverty, and promote healthy lifestyles that are associated with weight maintenance.
Publications
- Reither, Eric N., Theresa M. Fedor, Karin M. Abel and Dan J. Hatch 2009. Educational Disparities in Diabetes Prevalence in Utah, 1996-2007. Utah's Health: An Annual Review 14:42-51.
- Reither, Eric, and Rebecca L. Utz 2009. A procedure to correct proxy-reported weight in the National Health Interview Survey, 1976-2002. Population Health Metrics 7: http://www.pophealthmetrics.com/content/pdf/1478-7954-7-2.pdf.
- Reither, Eric N., Robert M. Hauser, and Yang Yang 2009. Do birth cohorts matter Age-period-cohort analyses of the obesity epidemic in the United States. Social Science & Medicine 69(10):1439-1448.
|
Progress 01/01/08 to 12/31/08
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Over the past academic year, I have participated in a number of research projects that are supported by UTA00849 (The Distribution and Determinants of Obesity: National, Regional and State-Level Analyses). As results emerge from the body of research, they are routinely disseminated to appropriate target audiences. For instance, along with Erin Ruel (Georgia State), Stephanie Robert (UW-Madison), and Paula Lantz (Michigan), I analyzed three waves of data from the Americans' Changing Lives surveys to better understand how baseline neighborhood disadvantages influence racial disparities in body mass. Preliminary results from this investigation were presented at the 2008 Population Association of America conference, which was held in New Orleans, Louisiana. Also, along with Rebecca Utz (Utah) and Norman Waitzman (Utah), I examined data from the Utah Population Database to determine how maternal factors (e.g., weight gain during pregancy) affected the body mass characteristics of adolescents in Utah. The results of this study were presented at the American Sociological Association, which was held in Boston, Massachusetts. PARTICIPANTS: Robert M. Hauser (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Karen C. Swallen (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Yang Yang (University of Chicago), Stephanie A. Robert (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Paula Lantz (University of Michigan-Ann Arbor), Erin Ruel (Georgia State University). TARGET AUDIENCES: The main target audiences of this research include (1) academics engaged in population health research, (2) public health researchers and policy makers at various levels of government, including the state of Utah and (3) clinical physicians. Where appropriate, the general public will also be targeted through appropriate media outlets. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Although this body of research is subject to changes in certain details (e.g., the particular databases used to accomplish a particular research objective), the objectives delineated in the original research proposal are still satisfactory summaries of the intended goals of this project.
Impacts
Over the past academic year, three important outcomes have emerged from this body of research. First, I have developed a new, baseline measure of obesity using the high school yearbook photographs of participants in the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS). An article (forthcoming in 2009) shows the feasibility of developing baseline measures of body mass even many years after the initiation of a research project. The publication of this research could pave the way for other important longitudinal studies to add new measures of obesity. Second, I lead a study of the distribution and determinants of overweight among adolescents in the Intermountain West (which appeared appeared in the 2008 issue of Utah's Health: An Annual Review). Although this research showed that Utah has the lowest prevalence of adolescent obesity in the Intermountain West, it also showed that obesity rates were unacceptably high among adolescents in every state in the region. Moreover, this research indicated that demographic composition, nutritional behaviors, physical activities and a handful of other factors (e.g., depression and television viewing) accounted for most of the significant differences observed between states among female (but not male) adolescents. This study alerts stakeholders in public health and other fields to important disparities in the Intermountain West, and also implies that policies designed to (1) limit poverty, (2) encourage physical activity (and discourage television viewing), and (3) monitor depression among adolescent girls could help mitigate these disparities. Third, I was recently informed that my procedure to correct proxy-reported weight in the National Health Interview Survey, 1976-2002, will be published in Population Health Metrics. This study will alert researchers to problems with proxy- and self-reported data, and will specifically assist researchers who wish to use NHIS data (a widely used resource for epidemiologic research) to monitor the U.S. obesity epidemic.
Publications
- Barth Cottrell, Erika K., Sang Lim Lee, and Eric N. Reither 2008. Widening Racial and Ethnic Disparities in AIDS Incidence in Salt Lake City-Ogden, Utah, 1990-2000. Utah's Health: An Annual Review 13:10-16.
- Reither, Eric N., Hyojun Park, Nao Xiong, and Matthew McCabe 2008. The Distribution and Determinants of Overweight Among Adolescents in the Intermountain West. Utah's Health: An Annual Review 13:64-71.
|
Progress 01/01/07 to 12/31/07
Outputs
OUTPUTS: 1. Over the past academic year, the most significant outcome to emerge from the body of research supported by UTA00849 (The Distribution and Determinants of Obesity: National, Regional and State-Level Analyses) was the acceptance of a research paper on obesity measurement at Demography, the leading journal of population studies in the United States. In this paper, I discussed the development and validation of a new, baseline measure of obesity that was developed using the high school yearbook photographs of participants in the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS). 2. Another significant accomplishment directly related to UTA00849 was the acceptance of the paper "The Distribution and Determinants of Overweight Among Adolescents in the Intermountain West" for publication in Utah's Health: An Annual Review. 3. Along with Rebecca Utz and Norman Waitzman (both at the University of Utah), I discussed the importance of birth cohort membership in the etiology of obesity at the 2007
research summit associated with the Rocco C. Siciliano Forum at the University of Utah. The audience at this research summit included a substantial number of researchers and policy analysts from state-level public health institutions as well as academics from across the nation. 4. In March 2007, I presented results stemming from a collaborative study (coauthors Sandra T. Marquart-Pyatt and Christy M. Glass) entitled "Obesity and Social Capital over the Life Course: Does Gaining Weight Mean Bowling Alone?". This paper is currently nearing completion and submission to a peer reviewed journal (most likely Social Science and Medicine). 5. In February 2008, I submitted a R-21 grant to the NIH entitled "Adolescent Obesity: A Multi-Level, Multi-Cohort Epidemiological Analysis of School Wellness Policy." I am co-PI on this project; other details follow: PA-06-151: Secondary Analyses in Obesity, Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIH-R21). Budget: $428,658 (decision pending).
PARTICIPANTS: Robert M. Hauser (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Karen C. Swallen (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Yang Yang (University of Chicago), Stephanie A. Robert (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Paula Lantz (University of Michigan-Ann Arbor), Erin Ruel (Georgia State University).
TARGET AUDIENCES: The main target audiences of this research include (1) academics engaged in Population Health research, (2) public health researchers and policy makers at various levels of government, including the state of Utah and (3) clinical physicians. Where appropriate, the general public will also be targeted through appropriate media outlets.
PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Although this body of research is subject to changes in certain details (e.g., the particular databases used to accomplish a particular research objective), the objectives delineated in the original research proposal are still satisfactory summaries of the intended goals of this project.
Impacts
The outputs described above are important for a number of reasons. Perhaps most significantly by adding a baseline measure of adolescent body mass to the WLS, one of the richest longitudinal studies of health in the social sciences. The publicaiton in Demography will open the door to new research on the lifecourse determinants of obesity as well as the consequences of obesity in adolescence. In addition, by demonstrating the feasibility of developing baseline measures of body mass even many years after the initiation of a research project, the (forthcoming) publication of this research could pave the way for other important longitudinal studies to add new measures of obesity. Previous research has demonstrated that adolescent obesity in the Intermountain West is less problematic than in other areas of the country. However, prior to our investigation, there were no systematic studies of the distribution and determinants of obesity among various states within the
Intermountain West. Our results demonstrated that the prevalence of overweight was significantly lower among adolescents in Utah (5.61%) than among adolescents in every other state in the Intermountain West, particularly New Mexico (11.99%) and Arizona (11.86%). Also, results from a series of logistic regression analyses showed that demographic composition, nutritional behaviors, physical activities and a handful of other factors (e.g., depression and television viewing) accounted for most of the significant differences observed between states among female (but not male) adolescents. Although further research on adolescent overweight in the Intermountain West is warranted, findings from the present study suggest that policies designed to (1) limit poverty, (2) encourage physical activity (and discourage television viewing), and (3) monitor depression among adolescent girls could help mitigate disparities in adolescent overweight between states in the Intermountain West. The third and
fifth outputs listed above are actually part of the same line of research -- and they are potentially important for the same reasons. Largely due to data limitations, there has been a paucity of longitudinal analysis on the relative effects of individual, family, and community or ecological characteristics on body mass in adolescence. This research makes use of a unique population-based, genealogical database, containing comprehensive individual birth certificate data linked to drivers' license records, and enhanced by geo-coding. This database affords a multifactorial and multi-level longitudinal analysis of adolescent obesity for cohorts born in Utah between 1983 and 1990, the period during which the childhood obesity epidemic took off. It also permits a fine-grained analysis of the effectiveness of specific wellness policies integrated within schools to combat obesity.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
|
Progress 01/01/06 to 12/31/06
Outputs
Revised analyses from a study of 1.7 million participants in the National Health Interview Surveys, 1976-2002, demonstrated that newer birth cohorts are at increased risk for obesity, net of period and age effects. However, the study also confirmed that period effects are principally responsible for the obesity epidemic. An article from this study is currently under review at Demographic Research. In a related study, the age-period-cohort dynamics of the obesity epidemic in rural America are being explored with the help of Hyojun Park, a research assistant. It is too early to report results from this study, but it is anticipated that an article based on this research will be submitted for peer review during the 2006-07 academic year. Finally, I chaired Philip Mason's MS thesis which used data from the 1996 Utah Health Status Survey to examine BMI disparities among religious groups within the state of Utah. This research demonstrated that LDS adherents, particularly
those who routinely attend church, are, on average, heavier than non-LDS subjects. The research also explored some mechanisms (e.g., physical activity) that explain part of these disparities. It is hoped that a revised version of this paper will be submitted for peer review during the 2007-08 academic year.
Impacts
The obesity epidemic in the United States has serious consequences in terms of the health, quality of life and longevity of the U.S. population. The epidemic also has negative impacts on the economy and health care system of the U.S. The demographic and epidemiological research outlined in the proposal promises to reveal important mechanisms leading to obesity, which could provide important clues for policy interventions. For instance, research from the age-period-cohort analyses of 1.7 million participants in the National Health Interview Surveys, 1976-2002 show that (1) new cohorts are at increased risk of obesity and (2) educational differentials in obesity have declined over this period of observation. This research demonstrates that while general education (particularly a college education) confers some protection, its influence is waning. Therefore, policies designed to limit obesity among newer generations of Americans should not presume that improvements in
educational retention or promotion will have a substantial impact on reducing the indicence or prevalence of obesity.
Publications
- Mason, Philip B. 2006. The Relationship between Religious Involvement, Health Behaviors and Body Mass. MS Thesis. Eric N. Reither, chair. Department of Sociology, Utah State University.
|
|