A research team at LSU’s Pennington Biomedical Research Center will receive $4.5 million to evaluate two treatments for childhood obesity.
Pennington will recruit 432 Louisiana families for the study, with each family participating for 18 months, and is anticipating hiring roughly 20 full-time workers at the research center for the duration of the study.
The researchers will look at whether counseling by a primary doctor that focuses on healthy eating and healthy habits or a combination of counseling and family-based treatment for both children and parents is more effective at treating childhood obesity.
Nationwide, one in five children are obese, but in Louisiana, the rates are much higher where 34% of children aged 10-17 are overweight or obese, according to the research center. The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, a government-sponsored nonprofit organization, is funding the study.
“Childhood obesity is an issue of critical importance in Louisiana because of its tremendous impact on long-term health and health outcomes,” says Dr. Stewart T. Gordon, chief medical officer for Louisiana Healthcare Connections.
The study is a part of a larger research effort into childhood obesity for which Pennington has teamed up with Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York and the Institute for Healthy Childhood Weight at the American Academy of Pediatrics. Total funding for the research is $14 million.
