Obesity Interventions in Underserved Communities : Evidence and Directions

Groundbreaking approaches to preventing and reducing obesity among minority, low-income, and other medically underserved communities in the United States.

The obesity epidemic has a disproportionate impact on communities that are hard-hit by social and economic disadvantages. In Obesity Interventions in Underserved Communities, a diverse group of researchers explores effective models for treating and preventing obesity in such communities. The volume provides overviews of the literature at specific junctures of society and health (e.g., the effectiveness of preschool obesity prevention programs), as well as commentaries that shape our understanding of particular parts of the obesity epidemic and field reports on innovative approaches to combating obesity in racial/ethnic minority and other medically underserved populations in the United States. Authors make specific recommendations to policy makers which are designed to reverse the rising rate of obesity dramatically.

The thirty-one literature reviews, commentaries, and field reports collected here address obesity prevention and treatment programs implemented across a spectrum of underserved populations, with particular attention paid to children and adolescents. Aimed at students, clinicians, and community workers in public health and health policy, as well as family medicine and pediatrics, sociology, childhood education, and nutrition―and deeply informed by fieldwork―this book demonstrates the importance of taking a full contextual view, both historical and current, when considering the challenge of reversing upward obesity trends among ethnic minorities, impoverished people, and other underserved populations.

Virginia M. Brennan is an associate professor in the Graduate School at Meharry Medical College and editor of Natural Disasters and Public Health: Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma, also published by Johns Hopkins.

Shiriki K. Kumanyika is a professor of epidemiology in the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology and the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine. She is the founder and chair of the African American Collaborative Obesity Research Network and the coeditor of Bridging the Evidence Gap in Obesity Prevention: A Framework to Inform Decision Making.

Ruth Enid Zambrana is a professor in the Department of Women's Studies and the director of the Consortium on Race, Gender, and Ethnicity at the University of Maryland, College Park. She is an adjunct professor of family medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.