Drs. Noe Crespo (SDSU) and Ariel Feldstein (UCSD) have been awarded a pilot grant from the UCSD Moores Cancer Center to promote transdisciplinary research.
The purpose of this project is to evaluate existing data from a longitudinal clinical cohort to determine the long-term health outcomes of children with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) with a focus on an at-risk population of Mexican American children, and to establish the basis for future lifestyle behavioral interventions among high-risk children.
The specific aims are: 1) to determine the long-term prognosis of children with NAFLD, 2) to determine the prognostic significance of clinical, biochemical, radiological and histological findings at the time of diagnosis, and 3) to determine the behavioral risk-factors and sociodemographic correlates of NAFLD in the existing cohort of children. The study findings will inform the development of behavioral interventions designed to reduce risk of NAFLD and related complications among high-risk children.