Project Number: 5450-51530-009-00
Project Type: Appropriated

Start Date: Apr 03, 2004
End Date: Apr 02, 2009

Objective:
Improve health and enhance quality of life by determining, for healthy and at-risk populations (e.g., school-aged children, rural elderly, Native Americans), mineral intakes that promote optimal physiological and psychological development, function and health; develop new functional bases for establishing mineral element requirements; identify mechanisms of action; and determine the influence of sex, age, genetic, lifestyle and environmental factors on mineral element requirements. Develop and implement health promoting interventions for prevention of obesity and co-morbidities in American Indian population in the upper Midwest.

Approach:
Dietary intakes and biochemical indices of mineral status will be related to physiologic (e.g., body composition, weight maintenance, physical fitness, energy metabolism, brain and cardiac function) and psychological (e.g., cognition, emotional and social adjustment, school/work performance) measures to determine roles of specific minerals in supporting optimal function and development. A Mobile Nutrition Research Laboratory, Community Studies Unit, and a residential Metabolic Research Unit will be used to conduct epidemiologic, supplementation, fortification, and controlled feeding studies, respectively with healthy and at-risk subjects (e.g., school-aged children, rural elderly, Native Americans). Use qualitative assessment methods (focus groups and in-depth interviews) and surveys to develop and implement social ecological, culturally-sensitive and scientifically sound interventions in American Indian communities. Randomized controlled trials will evaluate the effects of graded intakes of minerals, such as iron, zinc, copper, mangesium and boron, and mediating factors (e.g., genotype, controlled stressors). Animal studies will be used to determine the mechanisms of action of functional outcomes. Studies will involve university, industry and government collaboration.