Cleveland’s childhood overweight and obesity rate is about 40 percent and shows no sign of leveling off. A team of local researchers has set out to tackle the problem using a comprehensive and pioneering approach, which includes child and family behavioral interventions and partnerships with the Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) and the YMCA of Greater Cleveland.
The $12.5 million National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded program will be led by Case Western Reserve University with clinical expertise provided by University Hospitals (UH) Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital. It is one of four programs selected across the country to participate in the NIH’s national Childhood Obesity Prevention and Treatment Research (COPTR) initiative. As multiple factors contribute to childhood obesity, the Case Western Reserve program will assess the effectiveness of a multi-factorial approach using three behavioral interventions within children’s family, school and community environments to treat obesity and reduce rates of elevated blood pressure.
“Obesity is often associated with high blood pressure. Both obesity and high blood pressure can lead to complications, and may even cause premature death. Cleveland’s youth have substantial needs as they battle against obesity. This program uses a unique approach to provide children and families the tools they need to promote healthy choices and reduce obesity – all involving their homes, schools, and communities,” said Leona Cuttler, MD, William T. Dahms Professor of Pediatrics and professor of bioethics at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine. Cuttler is one of three principal investigators for the study.
The goals of the seven-year project are to reduce obesity and high blood pressure by increasing physical activity, along with healthy eating, sleep, and stress management. Four hundred and fifty overweight and obese students from 50 Cleveland schools will participate in the study. The students will be recruited through a screening program established through an existing partnership between Cleveland schools and Case Western Reserve Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing.
Half of the participating Cleveland schools participate in the YMCA’s successful We Run This City Youth Marathon program. They will receive nutrition education, a fresh produce “Try It” program, and additional programmatic support for the We Run this City program. Read more.
Case Western Reserve University students can enter the University Challenge by Dec. 1 and use a premier scientific research tool at the same time. Answer three questions correctly using the Knovel database, and win cash prizes, Amazon gift cards, an iPad and more. When Case Western Reserve shows 100 correct student entries, the university is guaranteed prizes from a contest-within-a-contest. Knovel provides leading reference handbooks, conference proceedings, databases and interactive tools in the applied sciences. Try it during November, and you and the university might win the Challenge! More details about the University Challenge and what Knovel can do for you are on the KSL NewsBlog.
Join Bon Appetit chef Allen Gross for this month's cooking demonstration at noon Wednesday in Nord Hall Room 310 to learn new recipes and taste great treats. Healthful eating helps keep your blood glucose in your target range, which is critical for diabetics. It can also help you feel good, lose or maintain weight and lower your risk for health problems caused by diabetes. Register online.
The Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences is hosting an information session 5-7 p.m. Wednesday at the Mandel School, 11235 Bellflower Road. The community is invited to learn about a social work degree from one of the highest-ranked graduate social work programs in the nation. The session will focus on the master’s program, field education and financial aid. To register, contact the Admissions Office at 368.2280. For details, go to the school’s website.
• • •
Focus One Photography will be here Tuesday and Wednesday to take senior portraits. The session will take five minutes and is free. You will receive a link to view and purchase your photos after the shoot, and your portrait will be included in the Retrospect Yearbook. Go online to sign up now. Please email Megan Schulstad with any questions.
• • •
Vote for your favorite study abroad photo during International Education Week (Nov. 15-19). Photos are on display online (starting today) and in Nord Atrium. Four students from among those voting will be selected at random to each win a $25 gift certificate to Barnes & Noble. Voting closes at noon Nov. 19. Winners will be notified by email. Sponsored by the Office of Undergraduate Studies, the Department of Bioethics and the Mandel School of Applied Social Science.
There will be a question and answer forum 2:30-4:30 p.m. Friday in the Toepfer Room on the Interdisciplinary Alliance Investment Grant (IAIG) Funding Competition. The provost and some of the alliance leaders will be present to answer questions on how to navigate the process this year. If you are unable to attend the forum, please send your questions to Chalana Gilliham ahead of time and we will address them at the meeting. More information is available online.
• • •
RePlay for Kids is hosting a toy repair and modification workshop 4-6 p.m. Tuesday in Room 310 of Nord Hall to benefit children with disabilities in Northeast Ohio. More information is available online.
• • •
Faculty, students and staff are invited to the Campus Community Forum for International Student Recruitment, Retention and Campus Life 12:30-2 p.m. Friday in Nord 310. This is International Education Week, sponsored by the U.S. State Department and Department of Education. For more information, contact the Office of International Affairs at 368.2397 or email.
• • •
Celebrate International Education Week at Case with a special collaborative event at the Kelvin Smith Library on Thursday afternoon starting at 3 p.m. International student tables and offices, a faculty-student panel, and a keynote speaker from the Cleveland Council on World Affairs all offer insights into cultural exchange growth and opportunities for Case Western Reserve. Think Globally, Act Locally@KSL, sponsored in partnership with Baker-Nord, International Student Services, and Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, has details available on the KSLNewsBLog.
• • •
The Share the Vision committee is sponsoring a cultural dinner–Spotlighting India–to celebrate International Education Week on Tuesday. This is the first in a Cultural Dinner Series co-sponsored by the Share the Vision Committee and Bon Appetit. Though Indian food will be served at both Fribley and Leutner, all displays and entertainment will be at Leutner in the North Residential Village. Students can use their Meal Plan. Case Cash and cash ($14.50) are also accepted. More International Education Week information is available online.
• • •
The Department of Music presents string and piano chamber music concert at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Harkness Chapel. The performance is free and open to the public.
Ellen Landau, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of the Humanities, presented the paper, ‘What a Picture Should Mean’: Hans Hoffman, Mercedes Matter and the Role of Drawing in Modernism, at the Figge Museum in Davanport, Iowa, on Oct. 2 for the symposium held in conjunction with her exhibition, Mercedes Matter: A Retrospective. She was a respondent for the session, Surrealism’s Collectors and Collections in America, at the Terra Foundation symposium on surrealism and the Americas,” at Rice University in Houston on Nov. 4. Her exhibition, Mercedes Matter: The Hoffman Years, will open in late January at the Wiegand Art Center, Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont, Calif., and later in the spring 2011 at the Wright State University Art Gallery.
Anne Helmreich, associate professor or art and art history, read her paper, The Victorian Camera: Registering and producing shifts in scale, at the North American Victorian Studies Association in Montreal on Friday, and will read Exhibiting the Modern, at the University of Glasgow, on Dec. 11.