September is National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month. Childhood obesity or overweight affects around 35% of children in the U.S., increasing their risk for adverse mental and physical health outcomes that can follow them into adulthood. Obesity is one of ECHO’s five pediatric health outcomes, and advancing research in the early developmental causes of obesity and its consequences is an important part of our mission to enhance the health of children for generations to come.

In the September issue of the ECHO Connector, we highlight the work of ECHO investigators including Drs. Traci Bekelman and Dana Dabelea, who have led a team of ECHO researchers in studying the regional and socioeconomic differences in childhood obesity. This team is also leading ECHO collaborative research on how obesity-related behaviors have changed with the COVID-19 pandemic, during which the already high rates of childhood obesity have risen even more. See more detail on their research.

ECHO’s five pediatric health outcome areas

You can find more papers from ECHO researchers on obesity and other outcome areas on our publications page, which is searchable by topic.

I would also like to thank the ECHO Connector readers and ECHO participants for the feedback we have received thus far on the ECHO Connector and ECHOchildren.org website survey. We appreciate your participation and feedback and encourage you to complete the survey to help enhance ECHO’s communications and resources.