Newswise — Professor Kendra Kattelmann, director of the South Dakota State University didactic program in dietetics, will serve as principal investigator for a nearly $1.5 million USDA grant aimed at preventing obesity and excessive weight gain among college students.
The three-year program will look at lifestyle, environmental and behavioral issues that influence weight gain in 18 to 24-year old college students at 11 universities. Researchers from schools that include the University of Maine, University of Wisconsin, University of Rhode Island, Syracuse University, Michigan State University, Tuskegee University, Rutgers University, East Carolina University, Kansas State University and Iowa State University will participate with Kattelmann to set up a 15-month, interactive, Internet-based program.
"We're using a targeted approach to help students develop healthy lifestyles, rather than focusing on adopting strict rules for dieting," said Kattelmann. "The program will reinforce lifestyle behaviors to encourage incorporating more activity into a student's day, focus on inner cues for hunger, food enjoyment, and develop food choice and preparation skills."
Data has shown that the number of overweight young adults has more than doubled in the last 30 years with 64% now considered overweight or obese. Researchers hope to find a means to curb and reverse those statistics.
"Young adulthood is a time of transitions that include moving from childhood homes, stopping full time education, starting full time work, having non-family, live-in relationships, getting married, and/or becoming parents," said Kattelmann.
These transitions are potentially stressful and can negatively impact health-related behaviors, she said. Results of new living circumstances can introduce tobacco use and excessive alcohol intake, difficulty in getting sufficient sleep, insufficient physical activity and unhealthful eating.
Traditionally, researchers note that little attention has been given to helping young adults cope with these transitions in a way that lets them develop and maintain healthful behaviors.
The USDA study will recruit young adults from collaborate institutions to test the effectiveness of a model formed for a semester-long intervention. Students will be involved in planning, developing and implementing the intervention. A control group not using the computer-based intervention, will be used for comarison.
"Creating a program that can be accessed from the Internet will aid participation by employing something already a major part of the lifestyle of young people," said Kattelmann.
The Internet program will incorporate both text and video components and be targeted to young adult readiness for change in physical activity, stress management, and enhanced fruit and vegetable consumption.
Kattelmann hopes the intervention program will be ready to roll out in a year and a half.
Founded in 1881, South Dakota State University is the state's Morrill Act land grant institution as well as its largest, most comprehensive school of higher education. SDSU confers degrees from seven different colleges representing more than 200 majors, minors and options. The institution also offers 23 master's degree programs and 12 Ph.D. programs.
The work of the university is carried out on a residential campus in Brookings, at sites in Sioux Falls, Pierre and Rapid City, and through Cooperative Extension offices and Agricultural Experiment Station research sites across the state.
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