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Health
Report Card Could Help Kids Drop Weight
A "health report card" that includes a student's
height, weight, and fitness level may help parents address
weight problems in their children, new research suggests.
Between 1963 and 2000, the percentage of US children who
were overweight nearly tripled. In an effort to promote
healthy weight, school systems are beginning to collect
student height and weight data, but parental involvement
in obesity interventions is considered an important factor
in promoting good eating and exercise behaviors, Dr. Virginia
R. Chomitz and colleagues explain.
Four elementary schools in the Cambridge Public Schools
participated in the current study by recording height and
weight for 1,131 students. The students' parents were either
given a health report card specific for their child, general
info about diet and exercise, or no information.
Chomitz, from the Institute for Community Health in Cambridge,
and colleagues then surveyed 399 parents regarding awareness
and concern for their child's weight, plans for weight control,
and measures to prevent further weight gain.
The findings are reported in the Archives of Pediatric and
Adolescent Medicine.
Among parents of overweight children, those in the report
card group were more likely than others to report initiating
or intending to initiate activities designed to help their
child lose weight.
"This is a first step in raising awareness" of
obesity issues among parents of elementary school students,
Dr. Karen Hacker, executive director of the Institute for
Community Health in Cambridge, told Reuters Health.
"We wanted to know if this is an appropriate way to
communicate this information, and found that families with
overweight children were happy to receive the information
and they intended to change," Hacker said.
However, there was no difference between the parent groups
in enacting measures to control time spent in front of a
television, increasing physical activity and serving five
or more portions per day of fruits and vegetables.
The authors are also concerned that 20 percent of overweight
children in the intervention group planned to put their
child on a diet, in spite of anti-diet information that
was provided.
"Restrictive dieting is not the best strategy for overweight
children," Hacker explained. She and her association
"prefer that children increase their physical activity
and change their nutritional habits."
SOURCE: Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, August
2003.
Article Source: Reuters Health
Article Author: N/A
Net Reference 89
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