Childhood Overweight: What the Research Tells Us Schools Can Help The primary goal for obesity prevention and treatment should be healthy eating and increased physical activity. An expert committee, convened by the US Department of Health and Human Services, recommends that treatment begin early, involve the fami-ly, and initiate permanent changes in a stepwise manner. Successful interventions use gradual increases in activity and targeted reductions in high-fat, high-calorie foods.53 Families play a key role in successful weight loss or healthy lifestyle programs. A British pilot study demon-strated that school may be a suitable setting for the pro-motion of healthy lifestyles in children, but interventions require replication in other social settings, including the family. Successful efforts are likely to be long-lasting, multi-faceted, and sustainable, involving all children in a school, target the whole environment, and be behaviorally focused.54 School nurses frequently have expertise in nutrition, weight maintenance, and exercise that enables them to develop prevention and intervention programs for students. The school nurse can identify students who are at risk for being overweight or overweight by screening for height and weight, skinfold testing, and measuring BMI. The school nurse can also refer and follow up with stu-dents who may not be seeing a health care provider on a regular basis.55 A California school-based intervention targeting sedentary adolescent girls increased physical activity and prevented a decline in cardiovascular fitness. The intervention, that included a separate, females-only PE class, specific activities agreed to by the participants, and classes on the health benefits of physical activity, resulted in more non-class lifestyle activity, such as walking instead of driving and taking the stairs instead of the elevator.56 Students working with researchers from the University of Minnesota made recom-mendations for effective school-based weight management programs. One group of students asked for weight control programs that are fun, interactive, accessible, con-venient, low in cost, sensitive to the needs of adolescents, include multiple physical activity options, and are offered to all students, regardless of their weight.57 Another group stressed the importance of having a program leader who understands the difficulties that overweight youth face, preferring someone who is currently overweight or has been overweight in the past.58 Next: References |
