Diet and Physical Activity Prevention Research Supported by the U.S. NIH From 2012-2017

Poor diet and inadequate physical activity are common contributors to preventable death in the U.S. This paper provides a summary of the NIH-sponsored research on disease prevention that underlies public health and clinical recommendations to improve diet and physical activity.

A representative sample (n=11,082) of research grants and cooperative agreements (research projects) representing the NIH prevention research portfolio between 2012 and 2017 were hand coded by trained analysts in 2017-2018. This manuscript describes the rationale(s), exposure(s), outcome(s), population(s), and study design(s) in prevention research focused on diet and physical activity and compares this research to identified research gaps in the field.

A relatively stable 7.8% (95% CI=7.0%, 8.8%) and 5.0% (95% CI=4.4%, 5.7%) of the NIH prevention research projects were focused on diet and physical activity, respectively, during 2012-2017. These projects often explored diet and physical activity together in the context of obesity, included observational studies, and focused on a general adult population. Few of these projects focused on development of improved assessment methods. Approximately 50% of these studies were related to research gaps identified by the 2015 Dietary or 2018 Physical Activity Guidelines Advisory Committee Scientific Reports.

Opportunities exist for more engagement by NIH and scientific investigators in diet- and physical activity-focused prevention research, particularly around assessment and known research gaps.