_01.jpg)
_02.jpg)
Project funded by $3.3 million NIH grant
August 14, 2009
Russ Pate
USC’s Arnold School of Public Health will use a $3.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study why physical activity levels decrease dramatically in many children during the transition from elementary to middle school.
Dr. Russ Pate, professor in the Department of Exercise Science, is principal investigator for the study called Transitions and Activity Changes in Kids (TRACK). The research sponsor is the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.
University officials said the prestigious RO1 grant is part of a record $210.3 million in USC research funding from outside sources ranging from federal agencies to private endowments and industry in fiscal 2009.
NIH research awards totaled nearly $32.5 million, with more than $40 million received from other agencies of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The health-sciences colleges — medicine, pharmacy, nursing, social work and public health — received $90.8 million in grants.
“Obesity rates have skyrocketed in American youth, and declining physical activity is a likely cause of this alarming trend,” said Pate.
“Many previous studies have examined the correlates of physical activity behavior in children and adolescents. However, no previous studies have prospectively and comprehensively studied the mechanisms that underlie change in physical activity behavior over time in young people,” he said.
The five-year study will involve 750 fifth grade students and their parents who will participate in a measurement protocol at fifth, sixth and seventh grades. Measures will include physical activity measured by accelerometers and self-report and a wide range of independent variables measured at three levels -- child/family/home/street, elementary school/neighborhood, and middle school/community.
Pate said researchers will collect data from children and parents during annual home visits and school data will be acquired through interviews with school personnel.
Information on physical environmental factors will be measured by visual surveys of neighborhood streets, application of a detailed Geographic Information Systems database, audits of physical activity places and self-reported perceptions of the environment.
By applying scientific formulas to the data, searchers can then identify factors that are directly or indirectly associated with change in physical activity across the three grade levels.
“This knowledge is needed to inform future public health interventions aimed at increasing physical activity and preventing obesity in children and adolescents.” Pate said.
Pate, an exercise physiologist, is a champion of exercise program for children. Testifying before a congressional panel last year, Pate said schools that skimp on physical education and physical activity may be failing their students’ academic progress in addition to their health.
Pate’s co-principal investigators on the study are: Dr. Cheryl L. Addy and Dr. Natalie Colabianchi of the Arnold School’s Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics; Dr. Dwayne Porter of the Arnold School’s Department of Environmental Health Sciences; Dr. Ruth Saunders of the Arnold School’s Department of Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior; Dr. Melinda Forthofer of the USC Institute for Families in Society; Dr. Marsha Dowda of the USC Public Health Research Center; and Dr. Rodney Dishman of the Department of Kinesiology at the University of Georgia.
