Chronic Disease/Epidemiology Program Area
Understanding causal links to chronic diseases is an important incentive for many Americans to change health behaviors. After publication of the U.S. Surgeon General's report in 1964 on the health-related risks of cigarettes, the prevalence of smoking among adult Americans decreased. Similarly, understanding the health risks associated with obesity, inactivity, and increased energy intake may also be powerful incentives for selected individuals to reduce weight or engage in other healthy habits. Further, explaining the underlying genetic and metabolic processes that link obesity and inactivity to chronic diseases may also help to identify specific segments of the population that could be targeted in intervention strategies to prevent weight gain and promote activity.
Members of this program area are:
| Marilie Gammon, head Epidemiology |
relationship between obesity and physical activity and their influences on breast cancer |
| Linda Adair Nutrition |
fetal and infant insults syndrome and obesity/syndrome X; growth and obesity |
| Edwin Fisher Health Behavior and Health Education |
self-management in prevention; diabetes and chronic disease management; peer and social influences in health promotion and quality of life |
| Gerardo Heiss Epidemiology |
large cohorts, CVD, obesity |
|
Temitope Keku Epidemiology and Medicine |
genetic and molecular factors in obesity and cancer |
| Beth Mayer-Davis Nutrition |
diabetes inclusive of type 1, type 2, and gestational diabetes, as relates to how nutrition impacts on the etiology and progression of the disease in children and adults |
| Robert Millikan Epidemiology |
genomics, molecular epidemiology |
| Cam Patterson Medicine |
cardiology |
|
Robert Sandler Medicine and Epidemiology |
obesity, physical activity, diet, colon cancer |
| Anna Maria Siega-Riz Maternal and Child Health Nutrition |
pregnancy and infancy, weight gain causes and consequences |
| Mark Sorensen Nutrition |
impact of diet and lifestyle on risk for obesity and metabolic syndrome |
| Amanda Thompson Anthropology |
