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Prevention Of Obesity In School Children Research Paper

Childhood Obesity Intervention Since the early 1980s childhood obesity has increased three-fold and during the 2005-2006 school year an estimated 16% of American children were obese (reviewed by Gleason and Dodd, 2009). Childhood obesity and weight problems predispose a child to physical and behavioral problems that can extend into their adult years (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2010) and for this reason health researchers and educators are attempting to curb this epidemic.

K-12 schools provide between 35% and 47% of a child's daily nutritional requirements (reviewed by Gleason and Dodd, 2009), providing an opportunity to reduce the prevalence of childhood obesity the United States. Towards this goal a coalition of nutrition and educational researchers conducted a 2-year pilot study to test the efficacy of a broad-based intervention strategy targeting obesity in 3,769 children attending grades 1-6 in a public school district in central Florida (Hollar...

During this longitudinal, prospective, cohort study the intervention combined improvements in the quality of the food available in schools, by doubling the fiber content and reducing fat by 23%, supplying nutritional and lifestyle educational classes, increasing opportunities for physical activity, and instituting school-based wellness projects. Of the five schools involved in the pilot study one was chosen by the school district administrators to function as a control. The demographics of the intervention and control schools did not vary significantly, although there was a < 20% difference in the number of Hispanic and White children.
Results and Interpretation

During the first year of the study a 1.46 reduction in BMI (body mass index) was observed for children attending intervention schools, but this was not statistically significant because during the same period the control schoolchildren also lost weight (-0.95 BMI). BMI is a method used to…

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Another primary outcome measure was academic performance, as measured by the FCAT (Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test). A number of studies have found an association between being overweight or obese and poorer K-12 academic performance (Roberts, Freed, and McCarthy, 2010), which could be related to the psychological problems that accompany this condition (Krukowski et al., 2009). In support of this association, children attending intervention schools experienced a significant improvement in their math scores (p = 0.0005). Reading scores trended towards significance (p = 0.08).

Summary and Critique

A comprehensive program to reduce the prevalence of obesity in school-aged children was shown to be effective in this pilot study. Enhanced BMI reductions were observed and
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