Physical Activity and Nutrition (PAN)

Physical Activity and Nutrition Program

The Physical Activity and Nutrition (PAN) Program of the ILSI Research Foundation was established in the mid-1990s to explore scientific gaps in nutrition, physical activity, obesity, and health promotion.

The PAN program has generally followed a translational pattern of work.  First, PAN supports a workshop or conference on a topic or convenes experts to review and publish an analysis of specific research gaps on obesity-related topics.  A pilot project is then initiated with strategic partners focused on one of the identified research gaps.  Finally, following the pilot studies, PAN identifies academic institutions to expand the pilot study and to explore other related research gaps in childhood obesity. 

Since 2000, PAN’s intervention work has focused on “system-fit” interventions—that is, projects that can be easily inserted into existing system operations at reasonable cost and that, lead to incremental behavior change. 

Why the focus on system fit?  Large, federally funded obesity interventions often require significant investment and system or environmental change. Although these large projects are critical to understanding obesity prevention and control, many schools, communities, and health systems that serve children are unable to invest the funding or time to implement, evaluate, and sustain these large-scale programs. 

Thus, PAN has focused on “system-fit” efforts in three program areas: 

• early childhood (2- to 5-year-olds and their parents),
• school-aged children, and
• health care pediatric overweight management.

An overview of PAN's programs is available here, and efforts in these areas are described below.           

Early Childhood: Children Aged 2 to 5 Years and Their Parents

PAN’s early childhood projects are included in a program area titled “Get Healthy Together/Juntos y Saludables.” These projects target systems that serve young children aged 2 to 5 years old and their parents, such as daycare centers, Head Start programs, and the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).

Get Healthy Together/Juntos y Saludables projects have been conducted in the following locations:

• Maryland: a Head Start project with Prince George’s County Head Start and the University of Maryland EFNEP;
• New Mexico: a USDA-funded project with New Mexico WIC and the University of New Mexico;
• Texas: a multi-year project in daycare and Head Start settings with the University of Texas at San Antonio; and
• Virginia: a WIC project in collaboration with WIC of Alexandria, Virginia, and VA Tech Cooperative Extension.

School-Aged Children:  TAKE 10! Program

TAKE 10!^â is among PAN’s most innovative, successful, and impactful programs. TAKE !0! is implemented in elementary schools to integrate health, nutrition, and physical activity with grade-specific academic lessons for kindergarten through 5th-grade classrooms. 

Through TAKE 10!, children learn that health and movement can be fun, teachers engage students with different learning styles, and school districts thus promote both health and academic achievement. 

To read more about the history, development, and impact of TAKE 10!, please click here.

Healthy Kids for Life: Pediatric Overweight Management

In 1998, the Maternal and Child Health Bureau and the National Center for Education in Maternal Child Health approached PAN about conducting a needs assessment of health professionals’ attitudes and practices in the treatment of childhood obesity.  Results from the study were published in a 2002 Pediatrics supplement:

• Barlow S, Trowbridge F, eds. Treatment of overweight children and adolescents:  a needs assessment of health practitioners. Pediatrics. 2002;110(1 suppl):205–238.

This work informed PAN’s efforts to address health care professional practice patterns in pediatric obesity management and counseling.  Together with many partners, PAN has completed and published the results of several health care studies:

• Beno L, Hinchman J, Kibbe D, Trowbridge F.  Design and implementation of training to improve management of pediatric overweight. J Contin Educ Health Prof. 2005;25(4):248–258.
• Dennison DA, Yin Z, Kibbe D, Burns S, Trowbridge F. Training health care professionals to manage overweight adolescents: experience in rural Georgia communities. J Rural Health. 2008;24(1):55–59.
• Dunlop AL, Leroy Z, Trowbridge FL, Kibbe DL. Improving providers' assessment and management of childhood overweight: results of an intervention. Ambul Pediatr. 2007;7(6):453–457.
• Hinchman J, Beno L, Dennison D, Trowbridge F.  Evaluation of a training to improve management of pediatric overweight.  J Contin Educ Health Prof. 2005;25(4):259–267.

PAN Publications