Dr. Huang receives high honor from the NIH

Terry Huang, Ph.D., M.P.H., chairman and professor of health promotion, social and behavioral health, has long been among the nation’s leaders in childhood obesity research.

On Tuesday, his efforts in this area earned him a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director’s group award — the highest honorary award given by the NIH.

Terry Huang Ph.D., M.P.H.

Dr. Huang was honored for his contributions as a founding member of the National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity Research, which coordinates childhood obesity research and programs in the:

• NIH;
  
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention;
  
• U.S. Department of Agriculture; and
  
• Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Below, he talks about his work.

How have you affected childhood obesity research?

I have been a champion of a systems science framework for the study of childhood obesity and now it’s part of the NIH Obesity Research Strategic Plan. … The goal is to optimize the synergy between top-down and bottom-up approaches that is essential to effective and sustainable solutions. The systems science framework also makes us think about both intended and unintended consequences of interventions.

For example, when low fat diets became a fad in the 1980s and 1990s, companies replaced fats with sugars in the food. That didn’t help calorie consumption, but when you look at it from a reductionist approach it made sense. However, you don’t see how other things were affected unintentionally.

Do you apply this research method to your projects?

I am interested in the simultaneous impact of creating social movements at the individual level and policy and environment change at the community or higher level.

For example, I have a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to demonstrate how youth advocacy and social marketing can shift the overall climate of childhood obesity in the Latino community in South Omaha.

I brought together a group of 13 teenagers who underwent advocacy training and created SaludableOmaha, a social movement that seeks to empower individuals and families to adopt healthier lifestyles and, at the same time, create a community and business environment that is more conducive to doing so.

I also lead a network of obesity researchers and systems modelers to better understand the complex heterogeneity and feedbacks in the development of childhood obesity, and design and test interventions in a virtual environment.