Solution to Childhood Obesity
Earlier today I read a study conducted by the American College of Sports Medicine titled “Neighborhood Design and Perception: Relationship with Active Commuting.” The purpose of this study was to find out how many students who lived within 1.5 miles of their school walked or rode their bicycle to school. The subjects of this study were 890 eighth grade students selected at random from different schools. Out of that group, only 56% of the students said that they walked to school at least one time per week. If those 56% of students combine the active transport (walking or biking) to school with some other form of physical activity, they will greatly reduce chronic health problems that are associated with inactivity. Some of these health problems are high blood pressure, cholesterol, Type 2 Diabetes, and obesity. These problems used to be concerns with adults but are now becoming more relevant in children. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate that 17% of children ages 2-19 are obese. That number is alarmingly high. The solution to cure the obesity epidemic would be to deal with the problem (i.e. inactivity) and not the symptoms (i.e. prescriptions for high blood pressure).
I had one of those light bulb moments when I first read those numbers. If inactivity is so low with children, why not create a program that offers children a safe route to walk to school? Increasing physical activity reduces chronic health risks. This simple idea deals with the problem and not the symptoms. Dealing with the problem when the children are young will greatly reduce the risk of them being overweight adults. The CDC estimates that 80% of overweight 10-15 year olds are overweight at the age of 25. Addressing the problem at a younger age will decrease the number of overweight and obese adults. If you don’t think obesity is an issue,
There are many barriers to creating some type of walk-to-school program. Some of those are safety, school location, distance and the physical environment all need to be considered when creating some type of intervention program. Meeting at a central location within a 15-20 minute walk to the school would be needed. As the distance from the school increases, active transport decreases. Having a central location close enough eliminates the distance problem. From the central location, a safe route must be created. The route needs to have minimal roads to cross, adequate sidewalks and sufficient supervision. I feel that there are enough worried parents out there that are looking for ways to get their children to be more active. So why not give them another option? If anyone has ever heard of a program like this I would like to learn some more. I literally had this “light bulb” moment a few hours ago so any information would be beneficial.
By Chris Fluck
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