Welcome  to  the  Public  Health  moment from  the  University  of  Minnesota. What  are  the  causes  for  the  rise  of  childhood  obesity? An  interdisciplinary  team  of researchers  at  the  University  of  Minnesota, led  by  epidemiologist  Leslie  Lydell, aims  to  find  out  there  have  been  a  number  of interventions  targeting  preventing childhood  obesity  to  date. None  of  them  have  come  up  with  the  answer, or  even  close  to  the  answer  of  what  we really  need  to  do  to  change the  direction  of  this  epidemic. Lidl's  five  year  research  project, funded  by  a  3.4  million  dollar  federal  grant, will  take  a  broad  based  approach examining  400  youth  and  their  families. Some  factors  she'll  look  at include  individual  diet  and  exercise, family  medical  history  and  family  eating  behaviors, school  policies  regarding  lunches  and  physical  education. And  geographic  issues  such  as  the  presence  of neighborhood  sidewalks  and  access  to convenience  stores  and  fast  food  restaurants. I  would  be  very  surprised  if  I  find one  or  two  major  factors that  I  can  point  a  finger  at  and  say, aha,  we  have  found  the  culprit. Here's  what's  causing  the  childhood  obesity  epidemic. What  I'm  hoping  that  we'll  be  able  to  do  is  to  at least  identify  what  might  be the  most  potent  factors  that  are contributing  to  this  problem with  another  public  health  moment. I'm  John  Finnegan.