College of Public Health

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

Health Services Administration and Policy

Kinesiology

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...

Research

Nutrition

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...

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...

Faculty

Nutrition

'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

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...

Faculty

With ACS working group, Sarwer combats bariatric bias

Studies continue to establish the medical benefits of bariatric surgery: Beyond helping persons with clinically severe obesity to lose pounds to look and feel better, bariatric procedures can result in lowered risk of obesity-linked issues including type 2 diabetes, hypertension, heart problems, and premature death. But bariatric surgery faces an obstacle that many other medically beneficial procedures don’t. There’s a bias—across society and even within the medical community—against accepting obesity as a chronic disease, as many chalk it up to poor lifestyle choices...

CORE–Dentistry collaboration addresses childhood obesity and cavities

A new collaboration between faculty members in the College of Public Health’s Center for Obesity Research and Education and Temple’s Maurice H. Kornberg School of Dentistry aims to incorporate nutrition and obesity screenings into regular dental care. The collaboration has resulted in the publication of a new guide for dental professionals titled the “Nutrition Counseling and Obesity Prevention Handbook." Obesity and dental decay are prevalent chronic childhood diseases. The same foods and factors that lead to dental decay—sugary foods, sodas, and candy, for insta...

David Sarwer appointed fellow of Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research

David B. Sarwer, associate dean of research and director of the Center for Obesity Research and Education (CORE), has been elected as a fellow to the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research. “Dr. Sarwer's nomination to the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research is a well-earned recognition of his leadership in the field of obesity,” said Laura A. Siminoff, dean of the College of Public Health and Laura H. Carnell Professor of Public Health. “We are fortunate to have such a talented investigator contributing to the research and educational mission of the College." The...