Fighting the Obesity Epidemic

Posted on January 24, 2013 by Rae Lynn Mitchell
Marcia Ory, Ph.D.

Marcia Ory, Ph.D.

Through prevention and research as well as education and community service faculty members and students at the Texas A&M Health Science Center (TAMHSC) School of Rural Public Health address a number of public health challenges related to obesity. As a result, several awards have been received including the Achievement Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging National Recognition Program and the 2011 Excellence in Texas School Health Discover Award by the Texas Department of State Health Services.

Faculty and staff continue to make presentations on obesity prevention research at multiple conferences nationally and internationally, including the International Society for Behavior, Nutrition, and Physical Activity conference in Melbourne, Australia. Regents and Distinguished Professor Marcia Ory, Ph.D., M.P.H., co-presented with Deanna Hoelscher, Ph.D., R.D., professor at the UT School of Public Health, concerning the Texas Childhood Obesity Prevention Program Evaluation Project. Texas was one of three states awarded $2 million by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) to evaluate the effectiveness of childhood obesity prevention policies. Drs. Ory and Hoelscher are co-principal investigators working on the Texas statewide program to examine the effects of two national policies on childhood obesity in Texas: the revised Women, Infants and Children (WIC) food package and Safe Routes to School.

Joseph Sharkey, Ph.D., M.P.H., RD

Joseph Sharkey, Ph.D., M.P.H., RD

Other presenters at the conference included Joseph Sharkey, Ph.D., M.P.H., R.D., professor and director of the TAMHSC-School of Rural Public Health Program for Research in Nutrition and Health Disparities, Wesley Dean, Ph.D., adjunct assistant professor, and Cassandra Johnson, M.S.P.H., former research associate and program coordinator. Dr. Sharkey organized and chaired a symposium titled, “It’s the context in which people experience food-related challenges and opportunities: Using multiple qualitative methods.” Johnson (co-authors Dr. Dean and Dr. Sharkey) presented on a participant-driven photo-elicitation study of Mexican-origin mothers in South Texas. Her oral and poster presentation focused on “what it takes” for mothers in South Texas to feed their families. Dr. Dean (co-authors Johnson and Dr. Sharkey) examined the interdependency of resources employed to manage food related hardships in a presentation titled, “Resource substitution and the management of food-related hardships in the rural Brazos Valley, Texas.” In another oral presentation, Dr. Dean (co-author Dr. Sharkey) presented, “The management of food-related hardships in Colonia households in South Texas: A participant observation study.”  More information can be found in International Journal for Equity in Health.

Additional studies by Dr. Sharkey and those involved in the Program for Research in Nutrition and Health Disparities published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine discuss the balance of healthy vs. less-healthy foods in convenience stores choices in certain Texas-Mexico border communities and linking very low food security with intake of more calories, total fat, added sugar in Mexican-origin children.

Dr. Sharkey was awarded $140,000 by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Prevention Research Center program for a two-year Texas Border Nutrition and Obesity Policy Research and Evaluation Network project  (TxBNOPRE). The TxBNOPRE will work with the larger Nutrition and Obesity Policy Research and Evaluation Network (NOPREN) to respond to issues related to the identification of policies that affect improved access and availability of health foods and beverages.

“Although obesity has risen at alarming rates among all segments of the population, prevalence is highest among Mexican-American children and continues to increase among the poor and near-poor,” Dr. Sharkey said. “Mexican-origin children and families in the colonias of the Lower Rio Grande Valley reside in areas that demonstrate high rates of childhood and adult obesity, poverty, food insecurity and geographic challenges associated with residence.”

Obesity is an increasing problem for adult women in rural areas, and a published study in the Journal of Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics by Tiffany Radcliff, Ph.D. and others, assert that continuing positive lifestyle habits after successful weight loss is difficult in areas with limited local support resources. Distance for participants and the fixed costs to offer center-based care can present a barrier to program access in rural areas.

Mark Benden, Ph.D., CPE

Mark Benden, Ph.D., CPE

Stand-biased desks in classrooms are being researched by Mark Benden, Ph.D., CPE, assistant professor, who was awarded $402,875 by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to conduct a two-year study. The Dynamic Classrooms Project will examine the effects of using a stand-biased classroom design on children’s caloric expenditure and physical activity, their behavioral engagement in the classroom, and academic performance.

“Given the growing epidemic, childhood obesity continues to be a focus area for public health,” said Dr. Benden who serves as principal investigator on the study. “Different aspects of the school setting have been targeted, but one untapped opportunity is increasing physical activity during instructional time without disrupting planned instruction.”

For additional articles on obesity prevention activities by faculty and staff can be found at TAMU, UT: Garden to Fight Childhood Obesity and Engaging Community Leaders in Obesity Prevention.

 
Contact Information

Rae Lynn Mitchell

rlmitchell@srph.tamhsc.edu  |  (979) 458-0773


The Texas A&M Health Science Center provides health education, outreach and research through its colleges and campuses in Bryan-College Station, Dallas, Temple, Houston, Round Rock, Kingsville, Corpus Christi and McAllen.

Distracted driving has become an epidemic

Posted on December 13, 2012 by Rae Lynn Mitchell

Distracted driving is a growing U.S. epidemic among all drivers.

Mark Benden, Ph.D., CPE

Mark Benden, Ph.D., CPE

“Some of the most common distracted driving behaviors are cell phone usage, eating and drinking, talking to passengers, grooming, reading, watching a video, changing the radio station and operating a compact disc or MP3 player,” says Mark Benden, Ph.D., CPE, assistant professor in the Texas A&M Health Science Center School of Rural Public Health. “It’s important to note that most of these behaviors are associated with technology or cellular telephones.”

Distracted driving can result in many various consequences, including death. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, in 2010, distracted driving caused more than 600,000 car crashes, 300,000 injuries and 2,500 deaths. The annual estimated cost to society is $43 billion.

“We must search for methods to implement autonomous technology in vehicles, as well as encourage cell-free zones across our daily lives,” Dr. Benden says. “These types of solutions will improve driver focus and attention in a constantly evolving world of technological distractions and enable drivers to be more aware of their behaviors and environment.”

 
Contact Information

Rae Lynn Mitchell

rlmitchell@srph.tamhsc.edu  |  (979) 458-0773


The Texas A&M Health Science Center provides health education, outreach and research through its colleges and campuses in Bryan-College Station, Dallas, Temple, Houston, Round Rock, Kingsville, Corpus Christi and McAllen.

Dr. Benden to Present on Stand-biased Classrooms at CDC Lecture

Posted on September 7, 2012 by Rae Lynn Mitchell
Dr. Mark Benden, Ph.D., CPE

Dr. Mark Benden, Ph.D., CPE

Mark Benden, Ph.D., CPE, assistant professor at the Texas A&M Health Science Center School of Rural Public Health, will present an invited lecture at the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on using stand-biased classrooms to combat childhood obesity and promote child learning. The presentation will be Oct. 16 in Atlanta.

Dr. Benden was one of the first researchers in the nation to begin researching the effects of sedentary behavior on health while offering practical interventions to combat growing waistlines at a time when most researchers were simply trying to accommodate larger people in an ever-growing array of under-sized products.

Dr. Benden first became interested in the benefits of using stand-biased desks in the workplace and subsequently published a book in 2007 on the subject. In Could You Stand to Lose? Weight Loss Secrets for Office Workers, he championed stand-biased workstations to break-up the duration and pattern of excessive sitting.

Stand to Lose Book CoverMore recent epidemiological studies have confirmed the position he postulated regarding the adverse health effects of sitting, including cardio-metabolic risks and shortened life expectancy.

Dr. Benden has been conducting research since 1998 into practical ways to get children and adults up and moving in the office and in school to reduce sedentary behavior and obesity while improving attention and focus. He received two patents in 2011 for stand-biased desk designs for children and adults.

“The increase in technology induced inactivity, screen time and health-related co-morbidity is unfortunately driving us to develop more creative methods of improving physical activity,” Dr. Benden stated.

 
Contact Information

Rae Lynn Mitchell

rlmitchell@srph.tamhsc.edu  |  (979) 458-0773


The Texas A&M Health Science Center provides health education, outreach and research through its colleges and campuses in Bryan-College Station, Dallas, Temple, Houston, Round Rock, Kingsville, Corpus Christi and McAllen.

Emergency AmbiCycle designed to save lives in tight spots

Posted on August 27, 2012 by Blair Williamson

From small villages with long dirt roads to crowded cities with traffic at a standstill, maneuvering today’s ambulance during an emergency simply may not be an option. But promptly reaching patients to treat them effectively is nonnegotiable.

That’s where the AmbiCycle comes in. An alternative compact transportation device specifically designed to transport patients from the scene to the hospital, it’s about the width of a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, nine feet long and has three wheels.

The need

Mark Benden, Ph.D., CPE, assistant professor at the Texas A&M Health Science Center (TAMHSC) School of Rural Public Health, and Eric Wilke, M.D., medical director of College Station Texas EMS, began design efforts on the AmbiCycle in summer 2008.

During a volunteer medical trip to Uganda a few months earlier, Dr. Wilke saw a need for an emergency transportation vehicle that could navigate crowded and narrow streets in rural areas.

Ambulances in the US are typically around 13 feet long, eight feet high and struggle to maneuver through congested traffic. These bulky vehicles also face difficulties getting to patients in rural areas fast enough, sometimes taking more than 30 minutes to arrive.

Alternatives to ambulances had been attempted in rural and metropolitan areas but produced major setbacks. Trailers attached to bikes were not safe on modern roads with motorized traffic. Motorcycle sidecars had a width almost equal to a car and were difficult to maneuver.

The concept

After scratching ideas for trailers pulled by a moped or bike, Dr. Wilke and Dr. Benden focused on a vehicle that could offer improved performance compared to trailers and sidecars.

“The AmbiCycle becomes more stable to drive when a patient is loaded,” Dr. Benden said. “All the others have the opposite effect.”

The AmbiCycle is more stable since its compact body allows the driver and patient to be on the same plane and maintain visual contact. This small device is designed to evacuate patients from areas at risk, damaged by storms, and under heavy traffic with inadequate emergency medical services.

“The AmbiCycle is the only patient transport that might make it through gridlocked traffic to get a patient to care during the ‘golden hour,’” Dr. Benden said.

This type of patient transport is an affordable alternative to a full ambulance. While a standard size ambulance costs $75,000, the AmbiCycle target cost is around $5,000. This vehicle gives users the option of either electric or gas power and gets 83 miles per gallon.

The solution

Medical accessories were specifically designed for the AmbiCycle, including helmets, unique litters, backboards and restraints. Patient covers and filtered air options are included in the designs, while high-tech medical monitoring and treatment devices are additional options.

The AmbiCycle isn’t just designed for everyday use, either; 36 can fit onto a single 53-foot trailer, making it ideal for disaster relief. It’s also an option for military wounded soldier transport.

Currently, a commercial prototype of the AmbiCycle has been developed using a platform from Automoto, a California company. This street legal vehicle has three wheels, two of which are in the back. The Automoto vehicle is used as a platform and modified into a prototype of the AmbiCycle.

This vehicle is US patent pending and a fourth generation prototype is currently being evaluated by medics, emergency room doctors and nurses, and multiple international health care organizations, including several in the Middle East, South America and Africa.

“The idea at this point is to produce a scalable, deployable vehicle that can be affordable at purchase and during maintenance. We hope this evacuation solution will save lives all over the developing world,” Dr. Benden said.

 
Contact Information

Blair Williamson

bmwilliamson@tamhsc.edu  |  (979) 458-0772


The Texas A&M Health Science Center provides health education, outreach and research through its colleges and campuses in Bryan-College Station, Dallas, Temple, Houston, Round Rock, Kingsville, Corpus Christi and McAllen.

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