Nov

21

(Childhood Obesity News) UA gets $1.47 million grant to battle childhood obesity - Tucson Citizen

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Researchers at the University of Arizona are using stealth in their effort to battle childhood obesity. Department of Agriculture that will help them use technology to get kids moving without ever mentioning the word "exercise. The UA researcher will hire about 30 adolescents to help develop an integrative software "widget" that will track, map and share nutritional and physical activity via mobile phones and social networking Web sites. The researchers will be targeting kids who don’t like to exercise but like other activities such as drawing. UA researchers will then offer the "stealth health" program in local after-school education programs and gather data from those students’ use of the widget. In the final year of the study, UA will partner with 4-H, YMCA and America On The Move to create a national student competition to modify the widget and study the "contagion effect" - how quickly the idea spreads and is used by youths. Read Childhood Obesity

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