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SUSAN C. INGRAM

Tenth District Delegate Shirley Nathan-Pulliam recently introduced a bill aimed at improving fitness for school-age children whose health may be compromised by obesity.

A nurse by training and a health-care business owner, Nathan-Pulliam was motivated by the increase in childhood obesity to sponsor a bill encouraging more physical fitness programs in public schools.

"What prompted it is the growing number of children with type 2 diabetes, with the sedentary lifestyles and diets," she said.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of overweight children age 6-11 more than doubled in the past 20 years from 7 percent in 1980 to almost 19 percent in 2004.

For adolescents 12 to 19, the numbers shot up from 5 percent to 17.1 percent in the same time period.

Sixty-one percent of those overweight children also have at least one heart disease risk factor, such as high cholesterol or high blood pressure, according to the CDC. They are more likely to become overweight adults and are at risk for myriad health problems, including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke, cancer and osteoarthritis.

Nathan-Pulliam said teachers she spoke to at a recent meeting expressed concern that students aren't getting enough physical activity during the school day.

A small survey of northwest area schools found students at Church Lane Elementary Technology School in Randallstown get one 50-minute gym class per week, with additional activities such as dancing, biking and flag football as part of school-wide activities on Friday afternoons.

Old Court Middle students alternate 50-minute gym classes from two days one week to three days the next.

At the high school level, the county requires students to take a one-credit class called Fitness Foundations/Fitness Mastery.

Sally Nazelrod, coordinator of the Office of Physical Education for county schools, said the course combines classroom learning and in-school physical activities. Students can also choose elective sports classes and other physical activities and join after-school sports teams.

"The research says all kids need physical activity. The whole society needs more physical activity," Nazelrod said. "The two factors are diet and exercise, and it's not really exercise so much as participation in a physical activity."

Nathan-Pulliam's bill would require the State Advisory Council on Physical Fitness to make recommendations to state and county school departments and private schools on how to increase physical activity for students and to collect data on the effectiveness of new programs.

"It's such a crisis," Nathan-Pulliam said about the impact of obesity and diabetes on the state. "The advisory council on physical fitness will look at working with school-age children and look at options on what we need to do."