Among the most common questions people ask Chief of Epidemiology, Mercedes Carnethon is “What is the biggest threat to the nation?” Her succinct one-word reply is, “Obesity!” Notice, she did not say, smoking, dangerous driving, or mention any terminal illness which is also hazardous to the nation’s health. National statistics confirm the extent of this serious problem.
As Carnethon says “over one-third of all adults are obese, and another two-thirds are overweight, and are on the way to becoming obese.” Obesity is also associated with comorbidities such as cardiovascular diseases and lung disease. Obesity contributes to depression and escalates the suffering from disabilities such as osteoarthritis.
For children and adolescents, the prevalence of obesity is 18.5% and affects approximately 13.7 million people. Taking a closer look at the statistics shows an 18.4% occurrence of obesity among 6 to 11-year-olds and 20.6% among 12 to 19-year-olds. These statistics tell us as children age, they are more likely to suffer from obesity.
Despite the increased spread of childhood obesity, there are exciting solutions on the horizon.
Empowering Youth to Overcome Obesity
In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers from Boston University of Public Health introduced youth-produced narratives. They asked a group of 9-12-year-olds from the Boys and Girls Club of Worchester to form a narrative of “why it was important for them to reduce their sugary-drink intake.” Staff assisted participants in producing their own written, video, or audio narratives to promote increased water intake and a decrease in the consumption of sugary drinks.
Dr. Monica Wang and her colleagues also designed training activities such as “blind taste tests of favored water, a corner-store scavenger hunt, and role-play skits.” Researchers built these activities based on strategies for replacing sugary drinks with water.
After each week, participants went home and “taught their parents or guardians what they had learned, and shared their narratives.” At the end of the 6-week program, the organizers of the program arranged a Boys and Girls Club community event to demonstrate the results.
Results from the program showed that participants and their parents “consumed fewer sugary drinks and more water over 6 months than a demographically similar Boys and Girls Club (BGC) in a nearby city.”
Dr. Monica Wang says this type of empowerment strategy works because it “recognizes the youth as experts of their own lives.” Most prevention programs concentrate on reducing childhood obesity by focusing on multiple dietary behaviors. However, Wang and her research team discovered that by focusing on only one dietary behavior, they were able to reduce the risk of childhood obesity.
Since the success of the program, “12 Boys and Girls Clubs have expressed their interest in the program for a future, larger-scale study.”
Preventing Obesity: Do Children Have an Objective Choice?
Often childhood and adult obesity are all about making an adjustment in diet. When diets are rich in nutrition, this minimizes the risk of obesity. Children face a barrage of advertising of fast foods and sugary drinks, influencing their choices. The question is: How often do you see an advertisement that promotes healthy food choices for children, if at all?
Research shows, children, and young adults between the ages of 8-18 spend more time in front of a television, computer, or mobile device screen “than any other activity in their lives except sleeping.” Research has also found a significant relationship between increases in advertising of unhealthy foods and a rise in childhood obesity.
Another harmful influence of advertising affects children as young as six who cannot tell the difference between “programming and advertising.” Research shows that advertising influences children’s product choices, which in turn influences the shopping decisions of their parents.
Two Solutions to Solve the Spread of Obesity
UCLA’s Health Sound Body Sound Mind
At one time Physical Education or P.E. was a key educational tool against inactivity at schools. Due to funding cuts, and pressure to perform on standardized tests, P.E. quickly lost its appeal. The current situation is not a pretty picture with a “median P.E. budget [of only] $1.50 per student a year, for a school of 500 students.” As a repercussion, many children grow up without suitable equipment or a physical curriculum.
Thankfully, the Sound Body Sound Mind (SMSM) program is changing things. It currently serves 185,000 students a year. The program aims to “combine the body and mind to enjoy physical activity.” In the beginning, many students did not see themselves as having athletic ability, however by the end of the program, UCLA reported that confidence levels had improved together with performance levels on fitness tests.
Wearable Technology Created by a 9-year-old
Andie Nugent is the inventor of Kazi, a nifty piece of wearable technology. Kazi is a Swahili word which means active. The purpose of this device is to enable parents and children to balance screen time with physical activity.
This unique innovation makes children earn their screen time with physical activity. The Kazi measures cardio activity, so kids need to do enough exercise to gain an access code. Once they have done a sufficient amount of physical activity, a piece of code appears on the device. To access video games, their favorite television programs they need to obtain a complete code. Then they type the code into their media device to gain access to the screen entertainment of their choice; more than one user at a time can use this technology, so it is ideal for families with quite a few children. Parents can also adjust the required level of activity needed to achieve a complete code.
Helping Children Take Charge of Making Healthy Choices
When a chief epidemiologist tells us that the biggest threat to our nation is obesity, we all need to take this seriously. Statistics show that childhood obesity is rapidly spreading. One of the problems children face in this modern-day is the amount of exposure to unhealthy food choices.
If given the choice of what kind of food they prefer, nutritious foods will not make it on a child’s top ten list! There are available solutions. Research shows that through creating their own narratives, young people are empowered to make positive choices and cut down on their sugary-drink intake.
Among the most innovative solutions is Kazi, a wearable technology that minimizes screen time and promotes physical activity. Technology such as this, by children for children, has enormous potential to engage kids and their parents alike to make better choices.
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