Project Number: 1950-51530-007-04
Project Type: Specific Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Oct 01, 2006
End Date: Sep 30, 2011

Objective:
LAB:Dietary Assessment To determine if low micronutrient intakes and poor dietary patterns increase bone loss and fracture risk with aging. To determine if specific vitamin of fatty acid intakes protect against depression and loss of cognitive function. To identify subgroups of older adults in the United States (US) with inadequate dietary intakes, and the extent to which inadequate intakes are associated with poor nutritional status. To determine the relationship between dietary patterns and heart disease risk factors, including obesity, among older adults. To determine how genetic polymorphisms modify dietary effects on risk of heart disease, cognitive function and bone status. To determine whether cumulative environmental stress is modified by nutritional factors to affect risk of obesity, diabetes, depression, cognitive decline and physical disability. OBESITY PREVENTION INITIATIVE To construct and validate a developmentally appropriate survey instrument appropriate for use with children and their caregivers to determine perceived barriers and facilitators to adhering to the DGA food choice and physical activity recommendations. To determine associations between the perceived barriers and facilitators and actual DGA adherence by age, gender, racial/ethnic, socioeconomic, geographic, biological, and cultural groupings.

Approach:
LAB:Dietary Assessment Establish a longitudinal cohort of Puerto Rican adults and assess dietary intake and nutritional status, along with stress measures and genetic markers and relate to the development and progression of chronic health conditions. Conduct intervention studies with Puerto Rican adults. Analyze data from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging to assess relationships between dietary patterns and metabolic syndrome. Analyze data from the Normative Aging Study to assess relationships between dietary intake, vitamin status and cognitive decline. Compare dietary intake measured by food frequency with serum biomarkers in the Jackson Heart Study. Analyze data from the Framingham Osteoporosis study to assess relationships between dietary pattern and bone mineral density and fracture.