Patient Studies

By Laura Madden-Fuentes

Sixth-graders focus of diabetes prevention study

Baylor College of Medicine, along with seven other institutions, will take part in a new NIH-funded study on diabetes prevention involving sixth graders in 42 middle schools across the country.

The study, called HEALTHY, is designed to show whether making changes to cafeteria food options and physical education programs along with promoting healthy behaviors will lower the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

Thomas Baranowski, M.D., professor of pediatrics-nutrition at BCM and the USDA/ARS Children's Nutrition Research Center, is the principal investigator of the local study. The disease is being diagnosed in children at a younger age.

The HEALTHY study is sponsored by the National Institute of Diabetes and Kidney Diseases. The American Diabetes Association is a co-sponsor along with the Institute for Public Health and Water Research.

For more information, go to http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/aug2006/niddk-28.htm.

For more information on clinical trials at BCM, please go to www.bcm.edu/clinicalstudies.