Empowering Healthy Kids Blog

Virgin HealthMiles part of Richard Branson’s Virgin group is donating $6.3 million in donations to raise awareness of childhood obesity by partnering with Texan Governer Rick Perry:

For two weeks beginning January 1, 2009, Governor Perry and Texas executive agency leaders will compete with other governors and their respective state leadership in the Capitol Steps Challenge. Teams will compete head-to-head by tracking their daily activity, with a goal of achieving the highest average steps per person.

At the end of the Challenge, Virgin HealthMiles will declare the state team with the highest average steps per person as the Most Active Governor’s Team in the nation and will make a $50,000 donation to that state’s childhood obesity program. If the winning state chooses to participate in the second phase of Virgin HealthMiles’ obesity initiative, they can earn double all donations, increasing the total potential donation to $250,000.

 

The second phase of Virgin HealthMiles’ obesity initiative will be individual State Leadership Challenges, where teams of 250 individuals from state government offices across the U.S. embark on a year-long program to increase their physical activity — again leading by example to their constituents about the relationship between increased activity levels and improved wellness. Based on activity levels, states can earn donations of up to $125,000 toward their childhood obesity programs. More details on the State Leadership Challenge will be announced in early 2009.

More here.

Interesting, and, in my opinion, this trend will only continue to grow:

Last year, 1.3 million children ages 6 to 11 were members of a health club, according to the International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association. And as of April, a quarter of IHRSA member clubs surveyed had children’s programs.

I hope this helps:

The N.C. Division of Public Health announced yesterday that 14 community grants focusing on obesity have been awarded to county health departments across the state, including two in Northwest North Carolina.

Grants of $380,000 from the Childhood Obesity Prevention Project went to the Appalachian District Health Department for work focusing on Watauga County, as well as to the Cabarrus, Dare, Henderson and Moore county health departments.

Each group will run a comprehensive public-awareness campaign in conjunction with county bicycle and pedestrian plans, as well as programs in preschools and child-care centers, pediatrics practices, YMCAs, hospitals, schools and the faith community.

The division awarded an additional $150,000 in grants to nine other health departments and health districts in support of the Eat Smart, Move More North Carolina movement. They are Davidson, Buncombe, Carteret, Chatham, Durham, Granville/Vance, Lee, Wake and Warren counties.

The financed projects will build upon existing effective programs or will try new approaches to increasing healthy behaviors. The proposals ranged from workplace wellness programs to building parks and walking trails.

While public awareness campaigns are a positive thing, as with all marketing (which is effectively what awareness campaigns are), the results need to be measured to ensure citizens is getting a good return on tax payer dollars.

YMCA launch a new programme, “Healthy U” aimed at increasing the health and wellbeing of children in New Jersey:

A new initiative by the Horizon Foundation for New Jersey will use fun exercises and promotion of healthy eating habits to reduce obesity in 18,000 school-age children through YMCAs statewide, foundation officials announced today.
The Healthy U program, as the initiative is being called, is being funded by a $1 million foundation grant. The goal is to reduce obesity rates in children enrolled in YMCA after school programs by up to 10 percent by the year 2011. Using a curriculum developed by researchers at the University of Texas, Healthy U will be rolled out at 359 YMCA sites across New Jersey starting early next month. It will be open to children between the ages of 5 and 12 and will also have a strong parental component.

Healthy U is based on the Coordinated Approach to Child Health (CATCH) curriculum, a national, award winning program with over 15 years of proven research documenting its success in reducing childhood obesity.

The program, which also provides specialized training to YMCA staff, has three major components — physical education, proper nutrition and parental involvement.

Sandy Hopkins from Delaware Trail Elementary uses video games to promote physical activity:

Today, thanks to a grant from an educational foundation at her school that supports innovative teaching ideas in the classroom, Hopkins’ students play their way to physical fitness with “Dance, Dance, Revolution” and “EyeToy” for Sony’s PlayStation 2.

Hopkins operates the games as a station, with 3-4 screens and dance mats. Six students typically use the station at one time, and those who are waiting to play use practice dance mats she has created out of carpets and tape. Jump ropes or stationary bikes are sometimes provided at the station as well. Every student is expected to remain active during the entire period.

I believe that novel ideas using technology will increase across schools as teachers try to find new ways to motivate and engage with kids. I have talked with a number of teachers and one constant struggle (other than budgets) is coming up with new creative ideas to teach and inspire kids to learn - thus the number of individual teacher-led innovations will continue to grow.

My philosophy towards public health and social problems is to find work on the solution from the ground up. Start with the individual, then family, then local community, then state, then national. This is why I like this initiative - the solution is skewered towards the local community:

Picking up the phone may not be the best form of exercise, but the CanDo Coalition is hoping people will do it to help defeat obesity.

The local nonprofit organization is using an automated telephone survey to gather information on the health needs of Loveland residents, so the group can plan ways to help local residents eat better, get active and prevent obesity.

The CanDo Coalition began in 2003, Englert said, as a response to the obesity rate in Larimer County, which had doubled during the previous 10 years.

The founding organizations were the Poudre Valley Hospital Foundation, Colorado State University and the city of Fort Collins.

Over the past five years, the CanDo Coalition has worked with Fort Collins schools, employers, health care professionals, new mothers, low-income residents and older adults to improve residents’ health habits.

In the schools, CanDo created a “School Wellness Kit” for teachers and parents, to help them find ways to get children to eat healthier, exercise more and limit TV, computer and video-game time.

The coalition also has helped Fort Collins businesses start exercise, weight-management and stress-management programs.

The funding for the Loveland expansion came from LiveWell Colorado, a partnership of health care organizations, charitable foundations, nonprofit organizations and public health agencies.

Keokuk Schools in Iowa boosts PE support:

The Keokuk schools landed a nearly $350,000 grant to beef up the weight room, provide aerobic fitness equipment and promote a more active lifestyle for students from kindergarten through high school.

The weight and aerobic equipment will not only help physical education students achieve better fitness. High school athletes will have more equipment for training.

The new equipment will be ordered in July. The high school will receive about $74,000 worth of weight lifting equipment such as free weights and non-aerobic machines. Delivery and installation will cost $7,100.

Aerobic equipment, such as treadmills, stairmasters, elliptical cross trainers and stationary bicycles and other machines also will be installed, worth about $63,000.

A major component of the grant is professional development for teachers relating to the new equipment along with funds for curriculum development.

The Carol M. White Physical Education Program Grant also includes equipment to monitor cardio-vascular fitness, new lap top computers and PDAs (personal digital assistants) for P.E. teachers to collect data.

Keokuk Middle School and the elementary students are not left out.

Nearly $17,900 in new equipment is planned, including digital pedometers, body fat analyzers, digital scales, resistance tubes and exercise balls.

The middle school also will get aerobic fitness equipment such as stationary bicycles and stairmasters.

All K-12 physical education teachers will be involved in the grant using the new equipment and in training. Playground supervision staff also will receive training in after-school workshops. The focus will be to increase activities at K-5 recess.

I like this initiative as it actually does empower and enable students to use the fitness equipment. Good to also see a portion devoted to training teachers too.

I’m a bit late to the party on this but here’s some commentary about the child obesity rates levelling off:

From US News:

There’s some not-bad news about childhood obesity today: A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association finds that the prevalence of kids with a high body mass index, or BMI, showed no significant increase between 1999 and 2006.

If that trend is borne out in data for subsequent years, it’s at least a sign that the upward creep of child BMI may have leveled off. But it’s by no means great news, since it still means more than 16 percent of kids between 2 and 19 had BMIs at or above the 95th percentile, while about 32 percent were at or above the 85th percentile. I know—that looked weird to me, too: How can 16 percent of kids be above the 95th percentile? (It’s like Lake Wobegon, where all the children are above average!) But those percentile charts are based on decades-old data on kids’ weight; kids have gotten heavier in proportion to height, so now 16 percent of them are at or above the level that used to be the cutoff for the top 5 percent.

From Extension Daily on the reasons for the levelling off:

Still, [Dr Robert] Keith says that while some behavioral changes surely have occurred, the possible peak in childhood obesity may actually have nothing to do with lifestyle changes. Future studies even may prove that the peaking effect had little to do with educational outreach and everything to do with a combination of several environmental and human genetic factors.

In fact, Keith says it is possible two pervasive environmental factors — a chronic lack of exercise coupled with a wide access to calories — have contributed to spiking obesity rates among children most genetically susceptible to these factors.

In effect, what is widely viewed as a peak is actually a genetic saturation point.

“It is possible that we’ve reached our saturation point in terms of the levels of physical inactivity and the amount of calories current available to us versus the number of children who are becoming obese,” Keith says.

Simply put, he says, all of the people most susceptible to obesity based on current levels of physical activity and levels of available calories have become obese.
And this theory, if it turns out to be true, presents a sobering reality to Keith and other health and nutrition specialist.

From Time, interviewing Cynthia Ogden (lead researcher of the study):

Ogden wouldn’t speculate as to why national childhood overweight trends appear to have stalled. It could be that kids have hit the fat ceiling — they’ve gotten as heavy as they’re ever going to get. Or, perhaps the most obvious answer is the nationwide effort to combat obesity by getting kids — and parents — to eat better and exercise more. From Arkansas, where state officials have begun sending annual childhood health reports to parents, to Massachusetts, where the town of Somerville launched a community-wide intervention to improve the diet and fitness of children, state and local governments have recognized and begun addressing childhood obesity.

One thing that needs to be noted is that Body Mass Index is used , which does have some flaws (which I have written about earlier).

National Start! Walking Day On April 16:

Heart disease is the No. 1 killer in the U.S. And physical inactivity doubles the risk. Start! walking and start reducing your risk. You can support the fight against heart disease by participating in National Start! Walking Day, Wednesday, April 16

One of the goals of this blog is to catalogue the numerous projects and activities designed to improve the health and well-being of children and hopefully inspire other communities to do the same. The Medica Foundation has released their projects for 2007 and listed below are their kid related projects:

• 2008 City of Lakes Loppet Event and Programming Initiative, $30,000 to support the 2008 event and incorporate a year-round program to educate youth and promote physical activity and involvement in the Tri-Loppet and Trail Loppet events for Minneapolis Public School Students. A project of the City of Lakes Nordic Ski Foundation.
• Fit Team for Kids, $30,000 for expansion of the Health Start School-Based Clinic comprehensive health and fitness program for low-income students at risk for obesity in three St. Paul high schools. A project of West-Side Community Health Services.
• Healthy Lifeways Project, $30,000 to utilize nutrition awareness and structured physical activity to reduce health disparities in American Indian youth. A project of Little Earth Residents Association.
• Bolder Options Health Habits Program, $30,000 to expand the Healthy Habits Mentoring Program to a satellite office at Dunwoody Institute to support North Minneapolis youth. A project of Bolder Options.
• Healthy Lifestyles for North Minneapolis Teens, $25,000 to expand health and wellness activities through the completion of a health assessment, referrals to a nutritionist, health educator or on-site clinic and by offering healthy food choices. A project of the Plymouth Christian Youth Center.
• Ready. Set. Action! Peer Education Model, $30,000 to develop a program by junior high/middle school students to educate elementary school students about healthy eating and exercise. A project of the Illusion Theater and School, Inc.
• Running Buddies Program, $20,000 to pair at-risk youth (ages 5-17) with adults to train and run 5K, 5-mile and trail races, including training plans, nutrition education, shoes, goal setting advice and relationship support. A project of Duluth Area Family YMCA.
• Strong Kids, $25,000 to provide a 12-week program for parents and children to develop a healthy approach to lifetime weight management. A program of the Marshall Area YMCA.
• SWITCH, $30,000 to implement the program in two Burnsville, Minn. elementary schools. SWITCH, designed to help communities, schools and families promote and choose healthy lifestyles, is a program of the National Institute on Media and the Family.