West Virginia University will welcome Virginia Quick, a National Institutes of Health postdoctoral fellow, on March 17, as she presents “The Skinny on Body Image and Disordered Eating among Youth and Young Adults.”

The symposium will be held from noon to 1 p.m. in the WVU Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center Hostler Auditorium. It’s sponsored by the Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design, the Center for Cardiovascular and Respiratory Sciences, and the West Virginia Clinical and Translational Science Institute.

According to Melissa Olfert, assistant professor of human nutrition and foods in the Davis College, Quick’s research is vital because nearly half of girls and a quarter of boys are dissatisfied with their bodies during adolescence which continues into young adulthood.

“This is striking given the negative consequences from having poor body image such as development of disordered eating, eating disorders and poor psychological wellbeing,” she said.

Quick is currently studying at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development where her main research focuses on examining eating behaviors, disordered eating, and body image of youth and young adults, particularly those with chronic illness.

She is currently collaborating with NIH investigators to examine outcomes from a behavioral nutrition intervention among youth with Type 1 diabetes and their families.

Additionally, she is involved in an international study with Health Behavior for School School-aged Children to examine trends of weight perceptions and dieting for weight loss among youth.

Quick holds her bachelor of science and doctorate degrees in nutritional sciences from Rutgers University and is a registered dietitian. Prior to joining NIH and NICHD, she was a postdoctoral research fellow in the Interdisciplinary Research Training in Child and Adolescent Primary Care Fellowship Training Program at the University of Minnesota’s Division of Epidemiology and Community Health.

The March 17 symposium is free and open to the public.

-WVU-

law/03/07/14

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