Environment and obesity in the National Children's Study.

We describe the approach taken by the National Children's Study (NCS) to understanding the role of environmental factors in the development of obesity. We review the literature with regard to the two core hypotheses in the NCS that relate to environmental origins of obesity and describe strategies that will be used to test each hypothesis. Although it is clear that obesity in an individual results from an imbalance between energy intake and expenditure, control of the obesity epidemic will require understanding of factors in the modern built environment and chemical exposures that may have the capacity to disrupt the link between energy intake and expenditure. Through its embrace of the life-course approach to epidemiology, the NCS will be able to study the origins of obesity from preconception through late adolescence, including factors ranging from genetic inheritance to individual behaviors to the social, built, and natural environment and chemical exposures. It will have sufficient statistical power to examine interactions among these multiple influences, including gene-environment and gene-obesity interactions. A major secondary benefit will derive from the banking of specimens for future analysis.

Environment and Obesity in the National Children's Study / Ambiente e obesidade no National Children's Study

We describe the approach taken by the National Children's Study (NCS) to understanding the role of environmental factors in the development of obesity. We review the literature with regard to the two core hypotheses in the NCS that relate to environmental origins of obesity and describe strategies that will be used to test each hypothesis. Although it is clear that obesity in an individual results from an imbalance between energy intake and expenditure, control of the obesity epidemic will require understanding of factors in the modern built environment and chemical exposures that may have the capacity to disrupt the link between energy intake and expenditure. Through its embrace of the life-course approach to epidemiology, the NCS will be able to study the origins of obesity from preconception through late adolescence, including factors ranging from genetic inheritance to individual behaviors to the social, built, and natural environment and chemical exposures. It will have sufficient statistical power to examine interactions among these multiple influences, including geneenvironment and geneobesity interactions. A major secondary benefit will derive from the banking of specimens for future analysis.

Descrevemos a abordagem do National Children's Study (NCS) para entender o papel dos fatores ambientais no desenvolvimento da obesidade. Revisamos a literatura a respeito de duas hipóteses principais no NCS que se relacionam a origens ambientais da obesidade e descrevem estratégias que serão utilizadas para testar cada hipótese. Apesar de estar claro que a obesidade em um indivíduo é resultado de um desequilíbrio entre consumo e gasto de energia, o controle da epidemia de obesidade requer o entendimento de fatores no ambiente moderno e exposições químicas que podem ter a capacidade de interromper a ligação entre o consumo e gasto de energia. Através da aceitação da abordagem do curso de vida a epidemiologia, o NCS será capaz de estudar as origens da obesidade da preconcepção ao final da adolescência, incluindo fatores que vão da herança genética a comportamentos individuais, passando pelo ambiente social, construído e natural e exposições químicas. O estudo terá poder estatístico suficiente para examinar as interações entre essas influências múltiplas, incluindo interações entre gene-ambiente e gene-obesidade. Um benefício secundário importante será derivado do banco de espécime para análise futura.

Environment and obesity in the National Children's Study.

OBJECTIVE: In this review we describe the approach taken by the National Children's Study (NCS), a 21-year prospective study of 100,000 American children, to understanding the role of environmental factors in the development of obesity. DATA SOURCES AND EXTRACTION: We review the literature with regard to the two core hypotheses in the NCS that relate to environmental origins of obesity and describe strategies that will be used to test each hypothesis. DATA SYNTHESIS: Although it is clear that obesity in an individual results from an imbalance between energy intake and expenditure, control of the obesity epidemic will require understanding of factors in the modern built environment and chemical exposures that may have the capacity to disrupt the link between energy intake and expenditure. The NCS is the largest prospective birth cohort study ever undertaken in the United States that is explicitly designed to seek information on the environmental causes of pediatric disease. CONCLUSIONS: Through its embrace of the life-course approach to epidemiology, the NCS will be able to study the origins of obesity from preconception through late adolescence, including factors ranging from genetic inheritance to individual behaviors to the social, built, and natural environment and chemical exposures. It will have sufficient statistical power to examine interactions among these multiple influences, including gene-environment and gene-obesity interactions. A major secondary benefit will derive from the banking of specimens for future analysis.