Mayer-Davis awarded $1.9M to accelerate solutions for young adults with Type 1 diabetes

May 24, 2017

Dr. Beth Mayer-Davis

Elizabeth Mayer-Davis, PhD, Cary C. Boshamer Distinguished Professor and chair of the Department of Nutrition at UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, has received a National Institutes of Health grant to help young people with Type 1 diabetes better control their glucose levels and weight.

The 4-year, $1.9 million award complements Mayer-Davis’ recent research, published April 13 in The New England Journal of Medicine, in which she and colleagues found increased incidence of Type 1 diabetes in young people in the decade between 2002 and 2012, especially among Hispanic youths.

The grant supports Mayer-Davis’ efforts to develop and test the efficacy of specific dietary approaches alongside behavioral approaches to help overweight young adults with Type 1 diabetes simultaneously manage blood sugar levels and achieve a healthy weight.

“Weight management in the context of Type 1 diabetes is particularly challenging due to underlying metabolic, clinical and psychosocial factors that are unique to Type 1 diabetes,” Mayer-Davis said. “Our goal is to generate much-needed science to inform clinical practice guidelines to address the ever-increasing and under-appreciated problem of overweight and obesity in this setting, in which day-to-day glucose control often works against weight management.”

Mayer-Davis will work through a transdisciplinary consortium, Advance Care for Type 1 Diabetes and Obesity Network (ACTION), with researchers from UNC, Florida Hospital Translational Research Institute for Metabolism and Diabetes, and Stanford University’s Division of Pediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes.

Share

Gillings School of Global Public Health contact: David Pesci, director of communications, (919) 962-2600 or dpesci@unc.edu