Research Program: Prevention & Etiology
Professor, Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, School of Public Health

Lytle@epi.umn.edu
612-624-1818 — office

Dr. Lytle received a B.S. in medical dietetics from Pennsylvania State University and is a registered dietitian. She earned a master's degree in education from Purdue University and her doctoral degree in health education and health behavior from the University of Michigan in 1988. Her research focus is health promotion of children, particularly preventing childhood obesity and promoting healthful diet and physical activity through school, family, and environmental approaches. She has been a principal investigator on several large National Institute of Health (NIH) studies including TEENS (NCI) and TAAG (NHLBI), TREC IDEA (NCI), and ECHO (NHLBI), and has participated in four multi-centered, school-based studies. She is a member of NIH’s Community Level Health Promotion study section. She teaches courses in theories of health behavior change, community nutrition interventions, and behavioral and social aspects of health.

Research Interests

Behavioral determinants of cancer risk; prevention of cancer; primary prevention in children and youth; childhood obesity.

Selected Publications

Lytle LA, Kubik MY, Perry CL, Story M, Birnbaum AS, Murray DM. Influencing healthful food choices in school and home environments: Results from the TEENS study. Prev Med. 2006;43:8-13.

Lytle LA, Schmitz K. Community-level influences and interventions for pediatric obesity. In: MI Goran, M Sothern (Eds). Handbook of Pediatric Obesity: Pathophysiology and Prevention. Boca Raton, Taylor & Francis. 271-290, 2006.

Lytle LA. Nutrition education, behavioral theories, and the scientific method: Another viewpoint. J Nutr Educ Behav. 2005;37:90-93.

Kubik MA, Lytle LA and Story M. Schoolwide food practices are associated with body mass index in middle school students. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2005;159:1111-1114.

Lytle LA, Murray DM, Perry CL, Story M, Birnbaum AS, Kubik MY, Varnell S. School-based approaches to affect adolescents' diets: Results from the TEENS study. Health Educ Behav. 2004;31:270-287.