Tips for Preventing and Treating Childhood Obesity
Exercise daily, eliminate sugary drinks and make sure kids get enough sleep to prevent and manage childhood obesity, says Elsie Taveras, MD, MPH, chief of General Pediatrics.
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Elsie M. Taveras, M.D., M.P.H. is Chief of the Division of General Academic Pediatrics and Executive Director of the Kraft Center for Community Health at Massachusetts General Hospital. She is also Conrad Taff Professor of Pediatrics in the Field of Nutrition at Harvard Medical School and Professor in the Department of Nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She received her Bachelor of Science and medical degrees from New York University and completed her internship, residency, and chief residency at the Boston Combined Residency Program in Pediatrics, and holds an MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health.
Dr. Taveras is a Pediatrician, clinical epidemiologist, and a childhood obesity researcher. Her main focus of research is understanding determinants of obesity in women and children and developing interventions across the lifecourse to prevent obesity and chronic diseases, especially in underserved populations. Her work spans the spectrum of observational studies and interventions—to identify and quantify risk factors— and to modify these risk factors for health promotion and disease prevention. She has published over 200 research studies and has received continuous research funding from the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, the American Diabetes Association, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Boston Foundation, among many other federal and foundation sources. In 2016, she received the Public Health Leadership in Medicine Award from the Massachusetts Association of Public Health for her extensive work improving health and health care in community-based settings. In 2017, she was named Executive Director of the Kraft Center for Community Health, a national center devoted to catalyzing and spreading innovative best practices in community health to improve health outcomes for underserved patients, families and communities. She is also a member of the 2020 USDA Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee.
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In this episode, Dr. Taveras discusses the importance of supporting underserved families and the role of communities in individual health.
Exercise daily, eliminate sugary drinks and make sure kids get enough sleep to prevent and manage childhood obesity, says Elsie Taveras, MD, MPH, chief of General Pediatrics.
During the first 1,000 days of your baby's life, you can take small, but important steps to help give your baby a healthy start in life. Elsie Taveras, MD, MPH, chief of General Academic Pediatrics and director of the First 1,000 Days Program, shares tips to improve your baby's lifelong health.
A systems-wide program that integrates clinical and public health services during pregnancy can reduce the prevalence of excess gestational weight gain among women who were overweight at the start of their pregnancy, Mass General researchers have found.
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A novel mobile health program created in early 2018 by the Kraft Center for Community Health at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) has proven to be an effective model for bringing opioid addiction treatment services directly to marginalized individuals, particularly the homeless.
Elsie Taveras, MD, MPH, is the chief of General Academic Pediatrics at MassGeneral Hospital for Children and executive director of the Kraft Center for Community Health at Massachusetts General Hospital.