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Childhood Obesity Rates Leveling
Act 1220 of 2003 by the Arkansas Legislature launched the nation's first multi-pronged legislative effort to address childhood obesity. It included measures to improve the nutritional contents of school meals and food in school vending machines, increase physical activity among students, and screen the body mass indexes (BMI) of all students grades K-12, with confidential reports sent to parents. The efforts seem to have helped halt the progression of the epidemic, though they haven't reversed it. According to "Assessment of Childhood and Adolescent Obesity in Arkansas," a report released in September 2008 by ACHI, 20.5 percent of Arkansas students were considered overweight and 17.4 percent at risk in 2007-08. Those numbers were almost identical to those from 2003-04, when 20.8 percent of students were overweight and 17.3 percent were at risk. Rates in the intervening years were similar. ACHI is a health policy center supported by the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Arkansas Department of Health, and Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield. According to Debra Pate, ACHI communications specialist, while national childhood obesity rates may be cresting, Arkansas' BMI assessments made it the only state in the nation that could prove it was making a difference. "When the rest of the country was steadily going up, up, up, as Arkansas had, being able to document that we had halted the progression was important news and actually put Arkansas in the forefront nationally for its work in childhood obesity," she said. The Robert Woods Johnson Foundation helped fund ACHI's five-year study. Pate said that collaboration, along with Arkansas' "cutting edge" efforts, led to the five-year grant that will create the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Center to Prevent Childhood Obesity. The grant was announced in September, and the center was to open in January. It will be directed by Arkansas Surgeon General Joe Thompson and will employ eight to 10 personnel, along with existing ACHI staff who will assist with the effort. It will collaborate with PolicyLink, a national research and action institute based in Oakland. It's no secret why American children have been gaining weight: They, like many adults, consume more calories than they burn thanks to unhealthy diets and sedentary lifestyles. The center's job, according to Pate, will be to study how the problem can be addressed and to help organizations, policymakers and communities build a nationwide movement. "When a community says, 'What can I do?' we want to be able to provide the answer based on evidence of what works and being able to lift up what works," she said. According to the federal Centers for Disease Control Web site, two National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys demonstrate the growing incidence of childhood obesity. Among children ages 2-5 years, rates increased from 5 percent to 12.4 percent from the first survey, conducted from 1976 to 1980, to the second, conducted from 2003-06. For children ages 6-11, the percentages increased from 6.5 percent to 17 percent. For those ages 12-19, it more than tripled, rising from 5 percent to 17.6 percent. Though hard figures aren't available to compare Arkansas' progression over that time period, Pate said that it mirrored the national trend and was probably worse given the fact that healthy living is associated with higher incomes and educational attainment and that Arkansas ranks poorly in both. Plus, of course, Arkansans eat a lot of fried foods. For the children who are overweight or obese, the health consequences are serious, including cardiovascular disease and Type 2 diabetes, a health risk long associated with adults. Social stigmas also can affect an overweight child's short-term and long-term psychological health. Arkansas is the only state that requires all students to undergo regular BMI assessments, achieved by dividing their weight in pounds by their height in inches and multiplying that number by 703. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommended in 2003 that every child's BMI be assessed every year. The Institute of Medicine in 2005 recommended that schools annually make the assessments and provide the information to parents. Efforts were made to protect each child's privacy. By law, Arkansas students were weighed privately by a trained professional, with the child facing away from the scale and results entered into a secure system that generated reports sent to parents. According to a study by the Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Act 1220 has met with some success. The majority of schools now have in place policies regarding "junk" foods in vending machines and cafeteria a la carte lines. Meanwhile, data suggests that parents are more aware of the need to limit junk foods and screen time. Despite that success, the General Assembly reduced the act's requirement in 2007-08. BMIs now are screened only in even-numbered grades K-10. Physical activity requirements were reduced in order to make room for academic instruction, even though a report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found that students with increased physical activity maintained or improved grades and test scores despite the lost class time. A 2005 report, "The Dietary Guidelines for Americans" by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture, found that children and adolescents should have 60 minutes of exercise most days of the week and preferably daily. Tags:Arkansas Center for Health Improvement, childhood obesity, Debra Pate, Robert Woods Johnson Foundation, U.S. Department of Health and Human ServicesBookmark:
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