CATCH

The Nation's #1 Health Concern

"Our kids didn't do this to themselves. They don't decide the sugar content in soda or the advertising content of a television show. Kids don't choose what's served to them for lunch at school, and shouldn't be deciding what's served to them for dinner at home. And they don't decide whether there's time in the day or room in the budget to learn about healthy eating or to spend time playing outside."
Michelle Obama, Childhood Obesity Summit

Over the past three decades, childhood obesity rates in America have tripled, and today, nearly one in three children in America are overweight or obese. The numbers are even higher in African American and Hispanic communities, where nearly 40% of the children are overweight or obese. If we don't solve this problem, one third of all children born in 2000 or later will suffer from diabetes at some point in their lives. Many others will face chronic obesity-related health problems like heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer, and asthma.

There has never been a more pressing problem concerning future generations that we have faced in America. The need for research and confronting this epidemic has never been greater and we at the MSD Center have made this our #1 research priority.

Community-Based Partnerships

Current Research

• Nutrition

  The National Institutes of Health is currently funding our project called "Lunch is in the Bag". With 73% of US children ages 3-5 in regular non-parental care, childcare is a very important setting for encouraging parents to increase young children's opportunities to eat and enjoy fruits, vegetables and whole grains; despite this opportunity, few studies have been conducted in childcare settings.
  
  The primary aim of this proposal is to evaluate Lunch is in the Bag, an intervention to encourage parents to increase the availability of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains in sack lunches for their preschool children in childcare centers. The ultimate goal for this research is the development of new strategies for the promotion of healthy eating practices in children through childcare centers, which will decrease their risk of cancer and other chronic diseases later in life. The intervention includes 5 weekly parent handouts, along with center based parent and child activities to reinforce concepts in the handouts, followed by a booster activity three months after the initial intervention.
  
  Outcome measures include changes in (1) the amounts of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, chips, and sweets packed in the sack lunches; (2) the amounts of these foods consumed by the children; (3) parent knowledge, norms and intention; (4) teacher support and awareness; and (5) center environment to support a healthy diet
• Physical Activity

  The Directors of Health Promotion and Education have funded the "Active Texas 2020" with the objective being to promote disease prevention and health promotion by helping organizations and multiple sectors make physical activity and exercise as important a health priority as tobacco control and good nutrition.
  
  A 10-year blueprint detailing proven strategies that will help schools, medical care organizations, employers, municipal leaders, transportation planners, parks and wildlife leaders and community leaders find and implement proven strategies for helping make exercise and physical activity a health priority throughout the State of Texas. Investigators in the Michael & Susan Dell Center for Advancement of Healthy Living conceptualized and are leading this effort.
  
  Working with Governor's office, Texas Department of State Health Services, Texas Education Agency, health and medical care providers throughout the state, and various municipal leaders from throughout Texas, this project has the potential of affecting the lives of all Texans by improving health through promotion of exercise and physical activity.

• Health Education

  Funding was provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the purpose of revising the current CATCH curriculum "CATCH Nutrition Plus" which is the current guide for the CATCH Kids Club after-school Program. The goal was to adapt a cardiovascular health promotion school-based nutrition intervention for obesity prevention and control. The primary goal of this study was to revise the original CATCH curriculum which is focused on prevention of cardiovascular risk factors to an obesity prevention program. The revised curriculum will be tested in 8 schools.