About NAASO

The North American Association for the Study of Obesity (NAASO) is the only continent-wide professional society of researchers, clinicians, educators, and policy-shapers, who devote their careers to the increasingly important issue of obesity. Members are drawn from academic, clinical, corporate, and governmental settings, and run the obesity gamut from the molecular to the societal levels.

Obesity is the number one nutritional problem in the United States and is rapidly becoming a world problem. It is associated with many chronic diseases, including heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, and many common forms of cancer characteristic of industrialized societies.

NAASO 2001

The NAASO Annual Meeting brings together the latest findings in basic, clinical, and epidemiological research on obesity and its management. The 2001 program will offer a wide range of concurrent sessions presenting important research in the field of obesity. These sessions will include key lectures on topics of broad interest and importance while symposia, oral presentations, and posters on specialized topics are presented in seven thematic tracks, including:

1. Genetics
2. Brain and Energy Balance
3. Behavior
4. Public Health and socioeconomics
5. Adipocyte-Lipid Metabolism
6. Obesity and Comorbidities
7. Prevention and Treatment

The Program
Key Lectures

Comprehensive, integrative presentations by internationally recognized experts on critical subjects that will include:

1. Recent Progress in the Genetics of Obesity: Implications for the Prevention and Treatment of Obesity
2. Leptin and the Brain
3. The Role of Satiety in Weight Loss
4. Resistin: A New Obesity Gene
5. Obesity and Women¹s Cancer
6. The History of Success and Failure in the Prevention and Treatment of Obesity

Symposia

Panels recruited to present and integrate data from different perspectives on a common topic. Among the planned symposia are the following:

1. Newly Discovered Obesity Genes
2. Neural Integration of Energy Balance
3. Quality of Life Assessment in Obesity and Weight Loss
4. Adipocyte-Lipid Metabolism: The Adipocyte as an Endocrine Organ
5. Is Type II Diabetes a Result of Paradoxical Lipodystrophy?
6. Childhood Obesity: Prevalence, Determinants, and Successful Interventions

Debates

Experts in the various topic areas debate the pros and cons of hot questions in obesity research, such as, "Is Obesity a Disease? Yes or No" and "Are Individuals Who Are Successful at Long-Term Weight Loss Finding a New Equilibrium? Or Fighting a Constant Battle Against Their Set-Point?"

Meet-the-Professor

Informal discussions on a variety of pertinent topics with respected leaders in the obesity field, including prominent researchers and clinicians.

Oral Papers

More than 200 abstracts selected for oral presentation from the hundreds of abstracts submitted. See page 14 for abstract submission guidelines.

Posters

Three sessions will offer posters selected from this year¹s abstract submissions under each thematic track. Each day, the authors of the abstracts in the featured track will discuss their findings in informal presentations.

titles of Dr Stotland's presentation:

1. Health-related and psychological motives for weight loss: Relations to age, degree of obesity, and psychological variables
2. Predictors of initial vs.later weight loss: The role of eating habit change
3. Use of a web-based assessment in obesity treatment: Association with treatment continuation vs. dropout

Dr Paul Boisvert, Ph.D.
D.B. Brown Research Chair on Obesity

Faculty of Medicine - Vandry Pav - 3101J
Université Laval
Ste-Foy (Quebec)
Canada G1K 7P4
Tel.:(418) 656-2131 ext. 8571
Fax :(418) 656-7898
(photo)
Paul.Boisvert@ap.ulaval.ca
ICQ: 7944299