Several COPT fellows attended Obesity Week 2015, the Annual Meeting of the Obesity Society, in Los Angeles, California from November 2 – November 7, 2015. Each student gave us a recap and reflection on her experience. We will be featuring one student per post as part of this series.
Allison Doub, MS
Q: What was the title of your presentation?
A: I presented two posters:
- Doub, A. E., Small, M. L., & Birch, L. L. A content analysis of recipes included in food blogs focused on child and family feeding: Recipe types, inclusion of produce, added sugars, and cooking methods.
- Doub, A.E., Small, M. L., Levin, A., & LeVangie, K., Brick, T. Examining traditional and Internet-based resources for home cooking information: An association rule learning approach.
Q: What were the main points of your presentation?
A: 1. The research presented in my first poster showed that over one-in-five recipes were for desserts and over half of all recipes contained added sugars. This suggests that recipes included in food blogs focused on child and family feeding may promote obesogenic dietary patterns. Increasing the amount of vegetables and fruits included in recipes in these blogs may be an opportunity for childhood obesity prevention.
2. The study in my second poster found that family and friends, food community websites, and cookbooks were the most common meal idea resources. Young and/or wealthy parents were more likely to use Facebook and food-related apps. Future research should examine whether these and other home cooking resources (e.g., YouTube, magazines) provide information that promotes or protects against obesity.
Q: What is something you learned while at Obesity Week 2015?
A: My favorite presentation was by Dr. Shari Barkin. She spoke about an intervention program to increase physical activity in preschoolers that was informed by a study on the way preschoolers naturally accrue physical activity over the course of a day. I also enjoyed the keynote presentation at the mHealth/eHealth section meeting by Dr. Donna Spruijt-Metz. Her presentation suggested that the way forward for mHealth research was the 3 M’s: Measure, Model, and Modify. Both of these talks encouraged me to continue thinking about how interventions can be data driven from the start.
Q: How do you hope your general program of research will contribute to the field of obesity prevention?
A: I hope my research raises awareness of macro-level influences on attitudes and behaviors related to obesity, particularly on mothers’ decisions about how to feed their infants and young children. Too often obesity is framed as an individual-level problem; my work aims to identify modifiable risk and protective factors within the realm of media.