Scientists at Arkansas Children’s Research Institute and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences have received a $1.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to find out why obesity rates in Arkansas are among the worst in the nation, the organizations announced in a news release Wednesday.
The “Arkansas Active Kids!” study will include two phases over four years. First, researchers will analyze existing datasets from the National Survey of Children’s Health and The Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System to see what environmental factors predispose Arkansans to obesity and suggest how those can be modified.
They’ll look for sociodemographic and environmental characteristics that affect children’s activity and fitness levels, according to the news release.
“We want to know, when we look at Arkansas alone, or when we look at the Delta region of the U.S. alone, does that picture look different from the national picture?” said the study’s principal investigator, Judith Weber, director of ACRI’s Childhood Obesity Prevention Research Program and a professor of pediatrics at UAMS. “Is there something unique about Arkansas? We’re going to look at those environmental and behavioral factors and then delve more into the metabolic and physiological aspects.”
Based on what they learn from the existing data, the researchers will then build a survey to administer to parents of 200 children between the ages of 7 and 10.
The children will also undergo fitness and activity testing in the Physical Activity and Energy Metabolism Lab at ACRI and Arkansas Children’s Nutrition Center, led by Elisabet Borsheim, study co-investigator and an associate professor of pediatrics in the UAMS College of Medicine.
The study aligns with Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s Healthy Active Arkansas plan, and will inform strategies to address child obesity statewide.