Fighting an epidemic: The role of schools in reducing childhood obesity (original) (raw)
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The Diabetes Educator, 2008
The subject matter in Overcoming Obesity in Childhood and Adolescence is an important topic that needs to be addressed in all school settings. This book attempts to guide school leaders, namely principals, in methods to increase awareness and to attempt to reduce the devastating effect obesity has on children and adolescents in this country. The book is written by Donald Schumacher, a physician and obesity researcher in Charlotte, North Carolina, and J. Allen Queen, a professor at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, and an educational consultant on wellness. Their primary audience is school principals, but because teachers are the individuals who spend the most time with students and can affect them positively, this book is also beneficial for them. The beginning of the book spends a good deal of time discussing the current statistics regarding obesity as well as how to be a good role model and helping the staff achieve that goal. There were specific suggestions to change eating habits and incorporate physical activity. Of course, the authors are assuming the individuals reading this book are not already taking these steps required to improve their own health. The remainder of the book reviews barriers facing the schools and specific action plans to implement the changes necessary to foster positive outcomes. I found it interesting that the school board and parent and teacher associations were considered potential barriers, when they are the driving force behind many aspects of change in schools today. The authors also mentioned that schools are "negative exercise zones," meaning that scheduled physical activity in a class is becoming more scarce. This is common knowledge among parents of children or educators who
Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 2017
Background The promotion of healthy eating and physical activity within school settings is an important component of population-based strategies to prevent obesity; however, adolescents may be vulnerable to weight-related messages, as rapid development during this life stage often leads to preoccupation with body size and shape. Objective This study examines secular trends in secondary school curricula topics relevant to the prevention of unhealthy weight-control behaviors; describes crosssectional associations between weight-related curricula content and students' use of weight-control behaviors; and assesses whether implementation of school-based obesity-prevention policies/practices is longitudinally related to students' weightcontrol behaviors. Design The Minnesota School Health Profiles and Minnesota Student Survey (grades 9 and 12) data were used along with National Center for Education Statistics data to examine secular trends, cross-sectional associations (n¼141 schools), and longitudinal associations (n¼42 schools). Main outcome measures Students self-reported their height and weight along with past-year use of healthy (eg, exercise), unhealthy (eg, fasting), and extreme (eg, use laxatives) weight-control behaviors.
The rise in the rate of obesity in school-aged children, adolescents, and young adults in the last 30 years is a clear healthcare crisis that needs to be addressed. Despite recent national reports in the United States highlighting positive downward trends in the rate of obesity in younger children, we are still faced with approximately 12.7 million children struggling with obesity. Given the immediate and long-term health consequences of obesity, much time and effort has been expended to address this epidemic. Yet, despite these efforts, we still only see limited, short-term success from most interventions. Without changes to how we address childhood obesity, we will continue to see inadequate improvements in the health of our children. Clinicians and researchers need to be lobbying for evidence-based policy changes, such as those identified by systems science, in order to improve the nation's health.
School and Community-Based Childhood Obesity: Implications for Policy and Practice
Journal of Prevention & Intervention in the Community, 2014
Community on the topic of Childhood Obesity Prevention lays some of the basis for the state of affairs of the Childhood obesity epidemic in the U.S. as of 2012 and the need for and types of existing prevention and intervention efforts underway. At the intersection of public health and community psychology, each of the six articles presents some insights into how prevention and intervention efforts currently underway are fairing and offers some implications for program developers and policy makers to start to turn around the epidemic. Given the key role schools play, successful strategies for engaging schools are presented in the introduction. The authors of this special issue also emphasize the need to involve whole communities in order to attain the intended changes of reductions in overweight and obesity rates and increases in positive health outcomes.
School education and childhood obesity: A systemic review
Diabetes & Metabolic Syndrome: Clinical Research & Reviews, 2019
Childhood obesity prevalence is shooting up at a phenomenal rate worldwide, leading to long-term devastating consequences. A great number of studies have investigated factors contributing to the increase in BMI of children and adolescents. School-based, home-based and clinic-based solutions have been suggested as possible
School-Based Obesity Interventions: A Literature Review
Journal of School Health, 2008
BACKGROUND: Childhood obesity is an impending epidemic. This article is an overview of different interventions conducted in school settings so as to guide efforts for an effective management of obesity in children, thus minimizing the risk of adult obesity and related cardiovascular risk.
School-Based Interventions on Childhood Obesity
American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 2009
Background: Over the past decade, childhood obesity has been recognized as an increasing health problem worldwide. It is a predictor of obesity during adulthood, which is strongly linked to chronic lifestyle diseases. Purpose: This paper aims to evaluate the effectiveness of school-based programs in the prevention and management of childhood obesity. Methods: A comprehensive literature search was undertaken for RCTs and clinical controlled trials on school-based interventions that addressed childhood obesity, published between 1995 and 2007. The papers included for the meta-analysis were those in which ORs or standardized mean differences and their 95% CIs were reported or could be calculated from available data. Results: Meta-analysis showed that the odds of participants' being overweight and obese in the school-based intervention programs compared with the control arm were significantly protective in the short term (ORϭ0.74, 95% CIϭ0.60, 0.92). Interventions that were conducted for more than 1 year had a higher OR of decreasing the prevalence of obesity. However, intervention programs were not effective in decreasing BMI compared with control treatments, with a weighted mean difference of Ϫ0.62 (95% CIϭϪ1.39, 0.14). Conclusions: This meta-analysis showed that there was convincing evidence that school-based interventions are effective, at least short-term, in reducing the prevalence of childhood obesity. Longer-running programs were more effective than shorter programs.
Integrative Review of School-based Childhood Obesity Prevention Programs
Journal of Pediatric Health Care, 2009
Childhood and adolescent overweight and obesity in the United States are rapidly becoming a major pediatric health concern. Schools are a critical part of the social environment that shape children's eating and physical activity patterns. While school-based programs may affect a student's perception of physical activity and the influence of dietary practices on overall health, the current variability in the theoretical underpinnings and methodological approaches used to implement these programs makes them difficult to evaluate for quality and evidence of effectiveness of the outcomes achieved across programs. The purpose of this study is to conduct an integrative research review using Cooper's framework to provide an overview of the degree of variability in the methodological approaches and theoretical frameworks of school-based obesity prevention programs that utilize one or more of the following interventions: dietary, physical activity, healthy lifestyle education, and/or parental involvement. This review will examine the variations in the duration of the interventions; whether the interventions were guided by the use of a theoretical framework; the strength of evidence supporting the studies; and whether the interventions demonstrated a reduction in body mass index or weight loss. A total of 16 articles were found based on the inclusion criteria for this study. Eight of the 16 studies (50%) applied theoretical frameworks. Significant variability was found in the duration of intervention between the studies analyzed. The range of duration was 5 weeks to 8 years, with an average of 16.8 months. Fourteen of 16 studies (88%) implemented dietary habit interventions. Fourteen of 16 studies (88%) implemented physical education programs. All 16 studies applied healthy lifestyle education. Nine of 16 studies integrated family involvement into the obesity intervention. Nine of 16 studies (56%) evaluated the effect of their intervention on body mass index.
A Policy-Based School Intervention to Prevent Overweight and Obesity
PEDIATRICS, 2008
The increasing prevalence and consequences of childhood obesity have prompted calls for broad public health solutions that reach beyond clinic settings. Schools are ideal settings for population-based interventions. Despite their intuitive appeal, the results for school-based interventions are mixed.