Dr. Mary Charlson
A $6 million grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) has funded the creation of a new center dedicated to reducing obesity and obesity-related deaths in New York City's African-American and Latino communities.
The Cornell Center for Behavior Intervention Development is a joint program between Weill Cornell Medical College, Cornell University in Ithaca, Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx and Renaissance Health Systems in Manhattan. The center will carry out a research study called SCALE (Small Changes and Lasting Effects).
Serving as the study's principal investigator is Mary E. Charlson, M.D., the William T. Foley Distinguished Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Clinical Epidemiology and Evaluative Sciences Research in the Department of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College, and Executive Director of the Center for Integrative Medicine at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center.
"African-Americans and Latinos have been disproportionately affected by the obesity epidemic and its related risks for diabetes and heart disease," says Dr. Charlson. "To address obesity, we will focus on changing eating behaviors."
Stress, certain visual cues, even someone's mood can all have a substantial impact on behavior and eating, she explains. "By effecting changes in these areas, we think people will be able to achieve sustainable weight loss."
The center will take an interdisciplinary approach to lifestyle changes, with psychologists, medical sociologists, nutritionists, and other experts working directly with community members in Harlem and the South Bronx to tailor personalized programs that are more likely to be successful than a blanket approach.
The team has more than 15 years of experience in developing health behavior interventions. They hope to develop mindful eating strategies aimed at reducing weight through small, sustained changes in eating behavior coupled with sustained increases in physical activity. Their goal is to effect a seven percent weight reduction in each obese adult participating.
"What's exciting about this program is that we are going directly into communities that are most severely affected by obesity and high blood pressure, and we are creating interventions to be used at home, not in a hospital or clinical setting," says Erica Phillips-Caesar, M.D., Assistant Professor of Integrative Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College and a physician at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. "We are partnering with community and faith-based organizations right from the beginning, giving them an active role in how this program will be shaped."
Dr. Phillips-Caesar will direct the center's project. Brian Wansink, Ph.D., the John Dyson Professor of Consumer Behavior at Cornell University, will contribute his expertise on how passive and active interventions – from the way patients stock their kitchen pantries and cupboards to how food is arranged on a table – can be strong determinants of what and how much is eaten.
"Even eating in front of the television is something you can change," Dr. Wansink says. "When we eat in front of the TV, we aren't paying attention to our food and we will eat until whatever we're watching is over, rather than stopping when we are full."