Temple U. Research: Is Healthier Mom the Key to a Health-Aware Kid?
By Lynne Adkins
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Local researchers want to find out if helping mothers get healthy will also have a positive impact on their children.
Kate Bauer, an assistant professor of public health at Temple University, is looking for 66 pairs of moms and children (ages 11 through 16) for a six-month study.
"Mothers and child's behavior are very strongly correlated," Bauer explains. "It got me thinking: perhaps a way to improve children's health behaviors is to intervene directly with mothers and help mothers improve their diet, become more active and lose weight, and hopefully have a positive impact on their children."
The mothers selected for the study will be enrolled in a weight loss program. Children will merely be monitored, to determine if their habits change and if they become healthier along with the parents.
"We're having the mothers and children fill out a survey about dietary habits -- things like their soda drinking, their fast food intake, their fruit and vegetable intake," Bauer says. "We'll ask about their physical activity habits."
For more information or to enroll in the study, call 215-707-5782.
