USDA Research Combats Childhood Obesity: A Collection of Projects that Integrate Research, Education, and Extension Targeting Low-Income, Ethnically Diverse Children and Families

The six included articles highlight a diversity of research projects, low-income target audiences, and settings.1–6 These settings include medical clinics,1elementary,2 middle and high schools,3 Head Start,4,5 Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC),4,5 Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program - Education (SNAP-Ed),6 and Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP).6 In addition, several studies in this issue examine intervention impact with a focus on the child and parent/family to address childhood obesity through infant feeding,1 school lunch participation,3 media literacy,6 school gardening, and physical activity.2 Two studies address development and validation of assessment tools for child obesogenic risk and food parenting practices.4,5 Specifics about these six articles follows. Infants in the high energy density dietary pattern were more likely to be overweight at 12 months.12 Qian and colleagues found neighborhood fast food density to have significant and positive effects on the BMI z-scores of Arkansas public schoolchildren.13 Cost effectiveness of nutrition education interventions in the elementary school setting was examined by Graziose et al. via a rigorous analysis.14 If Food, Health & Choices intervention was implemented in all New York City fifth-grade public school students over 1 year at an estimated cost of $8,500,000, obesity would be reduced by 289 males and 350 females in these schools. AFRI COP funding supported university level training such as the Transdisciplinary Obesity Prevention (TOP) graduate certificate program20 and an online training certificate program for community family educators.21 Although the challenge areas were eliminated and the Childhood Obesity Prevention Program has been sunset and replaced with the Sustainable Agriculture Systems Program, the breadth and depth of the articles in this issue and 550+ previously published significantly added to the childhood obesity prevention literature base.