Thomas Robinson

Clinical Focus

• General Pediatrics
• Pediatrics, General

Administrative Appointments

• Irving Schulman, MD Endowed Professor in Child Health, Stanford University (2007 - present)
• Director, Center for Healthy Weight, Lucile Packard Children's Hospital and Department of Pediatrics (2005 - present)
• Associate Director, Center for Policy, Outcomes and Prevention, Children's Health Initiative, Department of Pediatrics (2005 - present)

Professional Education

Graduate & Fellowship Program Affiliations

• Medicine
• Pediatrics

Internet Links

• Stanford Prevention Research Center

Current Research Interests

Dr. Robinson focuses on "solution-oriented" research, developing and evaluating effective health promotion and disease prevention interventions for children and adolescents and their families. His research is largely experimental, conducting school-, family- and community-based randomized controlled trials to test the efficacy and/or effectiveness of theory-driven behavioral, social and environmental interventions to prevent and treat obesity and eating disorders, improve nutrition, increase physical activity and decrease inactivity, reduce smoking, reduce aggression, reduce children's television and media use, and to demonstrate causal relationships between hypothesized risk factors and health outcomes. Robinson's research is grounded in social cognitive models of human behavior, uses rigorous methods, and is performed in generalizable settings with diverse populations, making the results even more relevant for informing clinical and public health practice and policy.

Clinical Trials

• Environmental Strategies & Behavior Change to Reduce Overeating in Obese Children Recruiting

Publications

• Assessing teen smoking patterns: the weekend phenomenon. Bailey SR, Jeffery CJ, Hammer SA, Bryson SW, Killen DT, Ammerman S, Robinson TN, Killen JD. Drug Alcohol Depend. 2012; 120 (1-3): 242-5
• Solution-oriented policy research: using research to drive obesity prevention and control policies. Robinson TN, Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2012; 166 (2): 189-90
• A randomized controlled trial of culturally tailored dance and reducing screen time to prevent weight gain in low-income African American girls: Stanford GEMS. Robinson TN, Matheson DM, Kraemer HC, Wilson DM, Obarzanek E, Thompson NS, Alhassan S, Spencer TR, Haydel KF, Fujimoto M, Varady A, Killen JD. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2010; 164 (11): 995-1004
• Effects of a college course about food and society on students' eating behaviors. Hekler EB, Gardner CD, Robinson TN. Am J Prev Med. 2010; 38 (5): 543-7
• Identifying subgroups of U.S. adults at risk for prolonged television viewing to inform program development. King AC, Goldberg JH, Salmon J, Owen N, Dunstan D, Weber D, Doyle C, Robinson TN. Am J Prev Med. 2010; 38 (1): 17-26