Robert C. Whitaker, MD, MPH

Professor, Department of Public Health
Professor, Department of Pediatrics
Center for Obesity Research and Education (CORE)
3223 N. Broad Street, Suite 175
Philadelphia, PA 19140

(215) 707-8676 Office
(215) 707-6475 Fax

rwhitaker@temple.edu

Biography

Dr. Robert C. Whitaker is Professor of Public Health and Pediatrics at Temple University, Philadelphia, PA. His research interests are in the childhood antecedents of adult chronic disease. He has conducted much of his research on childhood obesity. This has included studies on the epidemiology of childhood obesity, parent-child feeding interaction, and obesity prevention strategies in low-income preschool children. His work has also focused on the determinants of social and emotional wellbeing in children. He served on the Institute of Medicine’s Committee on the Prevention of Obesity in Children and Youth and on its Committee on Obesity Prevention Policies for Young Children.

Prior to joining Temple University, Dr. Whitaker was a Senior Fellow at Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. and was a Senior Visiting Research Scholar at the Center for Health and Wellbeing at Princeton University. He has held previous faculty positions in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine and at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. He is a graduate of Williams College and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He completed his residency in pediatrics at the University of Washington where he later received his Master of Public Health and was a fellow in the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program.

Education:

1979-1983 BA, Chemistry, Williams College, Williamstown, MA
1983-1987 MD, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD
1990-1992 MPH, University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine, Seattle, WA

Concentration:
Obesity
Pediatrics
Nutrition
Physical Activity
Mental Health

Course Involvement

Course Instructor

Public Health 5101 (graduate), Introduction to Epidemiology

Public Health 8011 (graduate), Social Determinants of Health

Publications/Presentations

Recent Publications

[LINK TO MEDLINE PUBLICATIONS]

Whitaker RC, Gooze RA. Self-regulation and obesity prevention: a valuable intersection between developmental psychology and pediatrics. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. Apr 2009;163(4):386-387.

Anderson SE, Whitaker RC. Prevalence of obesity among US preschool children in different racial and ethnic groups. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2009;163(4):344-348.

Whitaker RC, Gooze RA, Hughes CC, Finkelstein DM. A national survey of obesity prevention practices in Head Start. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2009;163(12):1144-1150.

Anderson SE, Whitaker RC. Household routines and obesity in US preschool-aged children. Pediatrics. 2010;125(3):420-428.

Hughes CC, Gooze RA, Finkelstein DM, Whitaker RC. Barriers to obesity prevention in Head Start.Health Aff. 2010;29(3):454-462.

Hughes CC, Sherman SN, Whitaker, RC. How low-income mothers with overweight preschool children make sense of obesity. Qual Health Res. 2010;20(4):465-478.

Gooze RA, Hughes CC, Finkelstein DM, Whitaker RC.Reaching staff, parents, and community partners to prevent childhood obesity in Head Start. 2008.Prev Chronic Dis. 2010;7(3):A54. PMCID: PMC2879986.

Whitaker RC. The infancy of obesity prevention.Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2010;164(12):1167-9. DOI: 10.1001/archpediatrics.2010.218. PMCID: PMC3108185.

Anderson SE, Whitaker RC. Attachment security and obesity in US preschool-aged children. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med.2011;165(3):235-242. DOI:10.1001/archpediatrics.2010.292. PMCID: PMC3086349.

Gooze RA, Anderson SE, Whitaker RC. Prolonged bottle use and obesity at 5.5 years of age in US Children. J Pediatr. 2011;159(3):431-6. Epub date 5/4/2011. DOI: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2011.02.037.

O'Brien MJ, Whitaker RC. The role of community-based participatory research to inform local health policy: a case study. J Gen Intern Med. 2011; 26(12):1498-1501. Epub date9/21/11. DOI: 10.1007/s11606-011-1878-3

Ludwig J, Sanbonmatsu L, Gennetian L, Adam E, Duncan GJ, Katz LF, Kessler RC, Kling JR, Lindau ST, Whitaker RC, McDade T. Neighborhoods, obesity, and diabetes--a randomized social experiment. N Engl J Med. 2011;365(16):1509-1519. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMsa1103216

Whitaker RC. Whitaker RC. The childhood obesity epidemic: lessons for preventing socially determined health conditions. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. Nov 2011;165(11):973-975. DOI: 10.1001/archpediatrics.2011.179.NIHMSID: NIHMS319573.

Herring SJ, Henry TQ, Klotz AA, Foster GD, Whitaker RC. Perceptions of low-income African-American mothers about excessive gestational weight gain. Matern Child Health J. 2011 Dec 11. [Epub ahead of print]

Anderson SE, Gooze RA, Lemeshow S, Whitaker RC. Quality of early maternal-child relationship and risk of adolescent obesity. Pediatrics. In Press

Grants & Contracts

Title:	Early risk factors for obesity: parenting, child behavior, and attachment
Source:	National Institutes of Health (R01 DK088913)
Role:	Co-Investigator PI: Sarah E. Anderson, PhD (The Ohio State University)
Goals:	To determine how the emotional quality of early parent-child relationships affects the risk of childhood obesity
Period of support:	9/1/2010 – 5/31/14

Title:	Reducing solid fat and added sugar intakes in low-income preschoolers through environmental and behavioral portion size strategies
Source:	U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture (2011-68001-30148)
Role:	Co-Investigator PI: Jennifer O. Fisher, PhD (Temple University) & Elena L. Serrano, PhD (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University)
Goals:	To reduce excessive energy intakes among low-income preschoolers through a community-level nutrition education program focused on reducing portion sizes of foods high in solid fats and added sugars.
Period of support:	8/1/2011 – 7/31/2016

Clinical Interests

General pediatrics