an office worker carries in a box of donuts to a conference room as a fellow coworker, out of focus, holds their hands to their mouth in surprise.

A novel follow-up to maintain bariatric weight loss

Bariatric surgery is the most effective obesity treatment, but its positive effects don’t always last. Patients typically achieve weight loss of 20% to 35% within six to 24 months, and they often show improvements in weight-related health issues such as Type 2 diabetes and hypertension as well as psychosocial functioning.     But 20% to 30% of patients who undergo bariatric surgery regain the weight over time. Surgeons in some cases recommend a second operation or prescribe weight loss drugs, which have shown promise but can be prohibitively expensive. A critical componen...
Research
Obesity
CORE
Social and Behavioral Sciences
a child sits at a breakfast table, reaching for a slice of melon

New study will explore how children choose food

What are the cognitive processes that guide young children’s ability to develop healthy eating habits? Are they the same “executive functions” that help children plan, focus their attention, and regulate their behavior in other domains, such as in social interactions and at school? Or does eating engage a unique set of cognitive processes?  Jennifer Orlet Fisher, professor in the College of Public Health’s Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, will explore this question with new funding from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, a uni...
CORE
Obesity
Research
Social and Behavioral Sciences
jennifer fisher

New study looks at strategies for parenting 'highly motivated eaters'

Parents know that some kids are picky eaters and others are more enthusiastic about food, and keeping them all eating healthfully may require different approaches. But most formal guidance aimed at helping parents feed children hasn’t accounted for fundamental differences in children’s behavioral predispositions towards eating. “The research on how to feed kids has pretty much taken a one-size-fits-all approach, even though we've known for decades that kids vary tremendously in their interest and enjoyment of eating,” says Jennifer Orlet Fisher, professor in the Colleg...
Nutrition
Social and Behavioral Sciences
CORE
a child sleeping

Study examines timing of sleep, eating in childhood weight control

Can consistent sleep, eating and activity routines help children avoid excessive weight gain? Chantelle Hart, professor in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, is launching a study, funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, to explore a possible connection. “We know it’s important how much sleep kids get, how many calories they're taking in, how physically active they are. What we’re trying to understand better is how much the timing and consistency of those behaviors might also be important for weight regulation in chi...
Nutrition
CORE
Social and Behavioral Sciences
a scale

Named among world's leaders, CPH researchers explore obesity causes and treatments

A new ranking establishes Temple University as one of the world’s leading research institutions addressing a truly endemic public health crisis—the ongoing rise of obesity in the United States. Driven by research at the Center for Obesity Research and Education (CORE) in the College of Public Health, the university ranks third in the world in the number of papers published in one of the field’s premier journals, Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases, the flagship journal of the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery.  “Prior to 2015, we had almost no w...
Research
CORE
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Health Services Administration and Policy
Kinesiology
Child sitting in high chair being fed broccoli on fork by mom

Fisher leads panel issuing national recommendations for children’s healthy eating

Providing young children with repeated opportunities to try healthy foods, structured meal and snack environments, and the freedom to make their own food choices are key to helping them develop lifelong healthy eating habits, according to new national recommendations from a panel co-chaired by Jennifer Orlet Fisher of the College of Public Health, convened by Healthy Eating Research. The new recommendations for children ages 2 to 8 supplement the existing U.S. Dietary Guidelines. “The U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans represent the state-of-the-art understanding of wha...
CORE
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Research
Obesity
Nutrition
cartoon of a man and a boy cooking with the text: Healthy Cooking at Home!

iByte4Health wins HRSA 'Preventing Childhood Obesity' challenge

“High-tech” solutions to broad public health issues don’t always need the most advanced technology. Sometimes a simple approach meets the community’s needs best. A team at the College of Public Health has won the grand prize in a competition aimed at using technology to combat childhood obesity. The winning project, iByte4Health, sends daily mobile-phone text messages and video links to parents. “We thought, people are on their phones all the time. Text messaging is a really easy way to reach people,” says Gina Tripicchio, assistant professor in the Department of S...
Obesity
CORE
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Research

Fisher named associate editor of 'Frontiers in Public Health'

Jennifer Orlet Fisher, professor in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences and associate director of Temple’s Center for Obesity Research and Education, is adding to her portfolio to become an associate editor of the journal Frontiers in Public Health.  Fisher, whose work focuses on the development of eating behavior during infancy and early childhood, will oversee peer review for articles in the journal’s new Public Health and Nutrition section and help the publication build a collection of manuscripts that focus on population-level nutrition. “I’m most ex...
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Faculty
CORE
Nutrition
yoga mat, online fitness class, and dumbbells

'Fitness orientation' and social support among predictors for long-term bariatric success

For those who have bariatric surgery procedures, increasing physical activity post-surgery is an important component of maintaining weight loss. But patients don’t always engage in enough physical activity to receive the full benefits of the surgery. A study led by Sara Kovacs, assistant professor of instruction in the Department of Kinesiology, examined what factors influence participation in physical activity among people who have had bariatric procedures. The research found the strongest predictors of increased physical activity were an increased “fitness orientation,”...
Kinesiology
CORE
Obesity

Sarwer co-edits special issue of 'American Psychologist'

David Sarwer, associate dean for research at the College of Public Health, was an ideal choice to serve as co-editor of a special issue of American Psychologist, the flagship scientific journal of the American Psychological Association, dedicated to obesity: Sarwer directs Temple’s Center for Obesity Research and Education (CORE), and much of his work focuses on the psychosocial and behavioral aspects of obesity. Obesity is one of the most pressing long-term public health issues in the United States. Approximately 40 percent of American adults currently have obesity (defined...
Obesity
CORE
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Faculty

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