Michele Polacsek publishes article in Childhood Obesity journal
Michele Polacsek, Ph.D., M.H.S., associate professor in the School of Community and Population Health, co-authored an article in Childhood Obesity entitled, "Evaluation of a Primary Care Intervention on Body Mass Index: The Maine Youth Overweight Collaborative."
The article discussed a study that evaluated the impact of a brief primary-care based intervention called, 鈥淭he Maine Youth Overweight Collaborative (MYOC) on BMI.鈥 Results of the study showed that the intervention did not lead to any significant improvement in participant BMI scores, concluding that primary care intervention alone may not be enough to impact BMI.
Polacsek co-authored the study with Steven L. Gortmaker, Ph.D., professor of the Practice of Health Sociology at the Harvard School of Public Health; Lisa Letourneau, M.D., M.P.H., executive director at Maine Quality Counts; Victoria W. Rogers, M.D., director of The Kids CO-OP at The Barbara Bush Children鈥檚 Hospital at Maine Medical Center; Robert Holmberg, M.D., M.P.H., director of Clinical Outreach for Husson Pediatrics; Kenneth Lombard, M.D., chief medical officer at Maine Medical Partners; Jonathan Fanburg, M.D., M.P.H., pediatrician at Maine Medical Partners; James Ware, Ph.D., associate dean for Clinical and Translational Science at the Harvard School of Public Health; and Joan Orr, MCHES, director of Accountable Care at MaineGeneral Health.