TODDLER OVERWEIGHT AND TOOTH DECAY PREVENTION (TOTS) TO TWEENS

In 2000, a team of investigators both at the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board and The Kaiser Center for Health Research put their heads together to respond to tribal leaders’ requests to develop “upstream” intervention strategies to prevent the increasing prevalence of Type II Diabetes.  In late 2000 an opportunity arose to develop a proposal for a National Institute of Health(NIH)/Indian Health Service funding initiative called Native American Research Centers for Health (NARCH).  NPAIHB was one of the first Indian Organizations be awarded funding to create a NARCH.  The original NARCH proposal included a research study aimed at reducing early childhood overweight.  This study which came to be known as TOTS (The Toddler Obesity and Tooth Decay Study) collaborated with five northwest tribes to develop community–based and family–based interventions aimed at reducing the early childhood overweight.  The results of this study are still being written up, but the successful collaboration and process, was followed by the funding of an additional research grant funded by another institute of NIH,  the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI).  The NHLBI Study, coined PTOTS or Primordial Prevention of Toddler Overweight Study, built on the strengths of TOTS and incorporated more comprehensive nutrition and physical activity components into the study.  PTOTS recruited six tribal communities to participate, three will serve as intervention sites and three will serves as control sites.  PTOTS is in the implementation phase in the three intervention sites and is in the planning phase for the control sites.