August 29, 2024 — It is a pain to sort through the errors that find their way into research publications. Even more painful is the experience of having to retract flawed publications. So when the Editor in Chief of Childhood Obesity retracted a fundamentally flawed, cluster-randomized trial, we see a reason to celebrate. Errors that involve clustering designs in […]
August 15, 2023 — Can a simple program to promote drinking water prevent obesity in elementary schools? Well, no. But a new study in Pediatrics does tell us that promotion of drinking water can indeed prevent weight gain in elementary school students. Many well-intended childhood obesity programs have a nil effect. So it’s delightful to point to a well-controlled […]
March 18, 2023 — The search for effective prevention strategies in obesity is daunting. For decades now, researchers have been casting about for effective ways to educate, nudge, or cajole groups of people into moving more and eating less or better. Trying to influence a group of people means that controlled studies of interventions can wind up being cluster-randomized […]
February 18, 2023 — Often indirectly, but sometimes directly, we hear from true believers in concepts attached to obesity, nutrition, and public policy. The embedded question is “Why do you doubt this article of faith?” Among the many articles of faith in this realm is the belief that if we deliver just the right education or just the right […]
July 30, 2021 — Improving health through nutrition is important. Relieving the considerable suffering that obesity causes is likewise important. But both of these tasks are difficult. That’s because clear evidence for cause and effect is hard to find in nutrition and obesity. Randomized studies are hard. Observational studies are more common, but they are subject to bias from […]
December 29, 2019 — Can fathers have a significant effect on physical activity in the lives of their daughters? This is an important question. Because right now, girls entering secondary school often don’t have fundamental movement skills that predict lifelong physical activity. Though we have plenty of data to say that fathers more often participate in physical activity with […]
February 1, 2019 — We keep hoping that editors and reviewers of obesity, nutrition, and physical activity studies will use a sharper eye when a cluster randomized trial comes to them. But two new publications tell us we can’t count on it yet. In both papers, the researchers claim to have proven the effectiveness of their programs. Yet neither […]
