Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Telemedicine And Primary Care Obesity Management In Rural Areas– Innovative Approach For Older Adults?, John A. Batsis, Sarah N. Pletcher, James E. Stahl

Dartmouth Scholarship

Background:

The growing prevalence of obesity is paralleling a rise in the older adult population creating an increased risk of functional impairment, nursing home placement and early mortality. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid recognized the importance of treating obesity and instituted a benefit in primary care settings to encourage intensive behavioral therapy in beneficiaries by primary care clinicians. This benefit covers frequent, brief, clinic visits designed to address older adult obesity.

Discussion:

We describe the challenges in the implementation and delivery into real-world settings. The challenges in rural settings that have the fastest growing elderly population, high obesity rates, …

Genetic Risk For Obesity Predicts Nucleus Accumbens Size And Responsivity To Real-World Food Cues, Kristina Rapuano, Amanda Zieselman, William Kelley, James Sargent, Todd Heatherton, Diane Gilbert-Diamond

Dartmouth Scholarship

Obesity is a major public health concern that involves an interaction between genetic susceptibility and exposure to environmental cues (e.g., food marketing); however, the mechanisms that link these factors and contribute to unhealthy eating are unclear. Using a well-known obesity risk polymorphism (FTO rs9939609) in a sample of 78 children (ages 9-12 y), we observed that children at risk for obesity exhibited stronger responses to food commercials in the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) than children not at risk. Similarly, children at a higher genetic risk for obesity demonstrated larger NAcc volumes. Although a recessive model of this polymorphism best predicted body …