Overview
Dr. Lori J. Stark is the Director of the Division of Psychology and a founding faculty member of the Center for Child Behavior and Nutrition.
Almost all chronic illnesses of childhood have treatment recommendations regarding diet. Unfortunately, adherence to dietary recommendations is typically lower than adherence to almost any other aspect of treatment for children. Dr. Stark has a long-standing interest in understanding the barriers to dietary adherence and designing treatments that address these barriers. Through her research funded by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and NIDDK/NIH, she examined behavioral and environmental barriers to dietary adherence for children with CF. This research has resulted in numerous publications that demonstrate behavioral and family-child interactions that may interfere with optimal energy intake in children with CF. [See a bibliography of publications related to this topic.]
Dr. Stark has also applied this knowledge about barriers to dietary adherence to designing behavioral interventions that help children with CF reach their dietary energy needs. These studies have consistently shown that teaching parents of children with CF behavioral strategies, including differential attention and contingency management, and working directly with the children to become partners with their parents in meeting their dietary goals, result in improved caloric intake and weight gain. [See a bibliography of publications related to this topic.]
Building on her success in modifying eating behavior in CF, Dr. Stark has begun investigating the application of behavioral treatment to change diet in other health conditions in childhood. One growing area of concern is bone health. While osteoporosis is often thought of as a health problem of the elderly, its origins are actually in childhood. Forty percent of skeletal mass is built during childhood and adolescence. In addition, chronic illness occurring in childhood places children at risk for decreased bone density and increased risk for fractures in early adulthood. Calcium consumption and weight bearing exercise are two modifiable contributors to maximal bone accretion. Increasing bone accretion during childhood is hypothesized to be the most effective way to prevent osteoporosis in adulthood. Dr. Stark currently has grants from the Arthritis Foundation and NIDDK/NIH to examine behavioral interventions to increase calcium consumption in children with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA) and Crohn's Disease. [See a bibliography of publications related to this topic.]
