 by Renata Smith, MPH In addition to text messaging interventions for obesity prevention and management, researchers are using mobile applications (‘apps’) as a means of supporting participants in their weight loss or maintenance journey. The world is fascinated with apps for all aspects of life. As of June 2014, a staggering 75 billion apps of any kind have been downloaded from the Apple App Store, with 50 billion more downloaded from the Google Play store. So, it makes sense to take advantage of such a large study population of app users.
1 Comment
 by Wei Perng, PhD Recent technological advances have landed us in a new age of research known as “the omics” era. While the number of omics categories is rapidly increasing, the core four involve the large-scale evaluation of gene expression (genomics), mRNA expression (transcriptomics), protein structure and function (proteomics), and metabolite patterns (metabolomics) - all in hopes to gain knowledge on disease development. Scientists have recently taken a keen interest in metabolomics; specifically, on how low-molecular-weight compounds (e.g. amino acids, carbohydrates, fatty acids, hormones) in tissue can provide information on disease progression and prognosis. Metabolomics could provide a snapshot of the good, the bad, and everything in between.
 by Karen Switkowski, MS, MPH Height is about more than physical appearance or the ability to reach items on the upper shelves of the grocery store. Economics research indicates that taller people make more money, even after controlling for factors such as age, gender, weight, education, and experience. In public health research, we often use height and growth rate as a study outcome when looking at the effects of various exposures, particularly nutritional factors. Height is an easily measured variable that can be used as a general marker of nutritional status and also predict health and developmental outcomes. What are some of the research questions that height is used to study?
 by Avik Chatterjee, MD I’ve never been good about drinking water. During my medical residency, though, I did get good at drinking coffee. But drinking so much coffee and not water (like everyone else seemed to be doing) made me nervous about my hydration status. since I wasn't drinking enough water to begin with, wouldn’t drinking coffee (with the ensuing diuretic effects) make things worse? IV fluids to the resident room, stat!
 by Maricelle Ramirez If you are hungry and running low on time, money, and/or palatable options, eating nutritious food may take the backseat, even if you do care about your food.
Over the past few summers, as part of a nutrition study, I went out to over 40 fast-food restaurants across New England and surveyed people who had just purchased food. It seemed that even participants who answered that calories were important in choosing their food also tended to respond that they either did not see calorie information or saw it but did not use it. |
RSS Feed
©2017 WeighingInBlog. All rights reserved. 401 Park Drive, Boston, MA