Fellow Bio:

There are many reasons why there is a need for this obesity prevention project. Cardiovascular disease is the #1 cause of death of American Indians in the Bemidji area (WI, MN, MI). Diabetes is the #4 cause of death, a rate five times that of all races in the US. Although obesity is on the rise all over the US, WI and MN American Indian children 5 and under have nearly double the obesity rates than those of all races. Also, there has been a ten fold increase in type II diabetes among children ages 10-18 in the past decade. Since obesity is intricately linked to CVD and diabetes, we are asking questions about why the above trends areoccurringg.

My project is part of a larger project under the guidance of Dr. Alexandra Adams. I am focusing on utilizing data from the Women, Infant, Children (WIC) program that has been collected by the tribal WIC offices over the past 5-15 years. We are recording data on the following: Infant feeding practices (breastfeeding vs.formula feeding and age ofintroductionn of solid foods), weeks gestation, birth weight, child BMI birth-5yrs, maternal pre-pregnancy BMI, and maternal weight gain during pregnancy.

We will then analyze the data to see if there are significant findings. For example, is there a correlation between the number of months of breastfeeding and a childs BMI at age 5? Once we determine possible intervention points, we hope to work with each community to develop community-based programs.

1) To examine tribal WIC data (0-5yrs) at Menominee and Bad River to assess prevalence of infant obesity and to determine if other factors such as birthweight, breastfeeding and family history are predictors of infant obesity.
2) Data Analysis.
3) Design and implement a community-based intervention program.

Personal goals 1) To learn how to work with a community, in particular the American Indian communities of WI, to improve their health.
2) To build a strong and trusting relationship between the tribes and the university

1)Have helped design the data base for the computer program that was made by Mr. Jim Bobula.
2)Have collected about 3/4 of the data from the Menominee WIC files and began at Bad River.

Our first challenges were to work out the bugs in the computer program, which Jim quickly fixed.

Resource Needs:

Last update:

February 11, 2002

A indicates the item has been completed.

Completed	When	What	On-line
	Year 1: Beginning of Semester 2	New Project Report	Submit Report
	Year 2: Beginning of Semester 1	Project Update	Submit Update
	Year 2: Beginning of Semester 2	Project Update	Submit Update
	Year 3: Beginning of third year	Project Update	Submit Update
	Year 4: August of fourth year	2-3 page final summary of project that includes a reflective evaluation of the project process	N/A
	Ongoing	Participate in program evaluation (written and/or focus group)	View Options
	By the end of fourth year	Select poster, presentation, paper, creative option or your own idea	View Options

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© 2003 University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Family Medicine