Grant: Doctoral Award - Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarships

Obesity is a growing problem in adolescents. Excess weight at this age can lead to significant health problems in adulthood. Currently, a longitudinal study is being conducted in high schools across British Columbia aimed at identifying trajectories of substance use. We plan to add an obesity component to this survey with the goal to model trajectories of obesity in high school students and examine factors associated with each trajectory. This will help in identifying subpopulations at greatest risk of becoming obese at a later age. Interventions can then be targeted to those individuals. We will also explore the association between binge eating and addiction. It is unclear from the literature whether overeating is an addictive behaviour. We will compare behaviours associated with substance use with those associated with binge eating. The results may impact obesity intervention strategies.