Project Leader:  Pharah Morgan | Rocky Mountain Tribal Leadership Council

Abstract

American Indian childhood obesity is a major public health problem in the United States. Of all demographic group, American Indians have the highest prevalence of diabetes and other metabolic syndromes in the United States. Overweight and obesity among youth is associated with the increased risk for pre-diabetes, metabolic syndrome, type 2-diabetes (insulin resistance) and heart disease typically marked by acanthosis. In an effort to reduce childhood obesity and the rates of metabolic syndromes among the Indigenous youth of Montana and Wyoming, Rocky Mountain Tribal Epidemiology Center launched the Child Health Measures Project. The CHM Project is a 10-year cohort initiative (2007-2017) in its last year, that collects health data on school aged children 5-19 years. RMTEC's CHM project highlights the high rates of childhood obesity and heart disease among children at participating nations by screening children from kindergarten to high school with the following measurements: body mass index, weight/height, blood pressure, acanthosis presence, and consumption amounts of fruits/vegetables. Based solely on Tribal participation and through Tribal volunteers, the project has been successful in collecting data, with a goal to ultimately create Tribal specific "Action Plans" as interventions in the near future. The primary goal of this proposal is to analyze and describe secondary CHM data. We will use tribally recommended methods for reducing obesity and overweight among American Indian youth. The secondary goal is to build the capacity of RMTEC using community based on participatory research as an approach to address childhood obesity and related risk factors affecting American Indian communities in Montana and Wyoming.