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Lack of playgrounds, low rates of participation in organized sports may contribute to problem, researchers say

 

Meagan Fitzpatrick, Canwest News Service

OTTAWA -- Is your neighbourhood making your child fat? A new study suggests that children growing up in Canada's poorest neighbourhoods are more likely to be considered overweight or obese than those raised in higher- and middle-income areas.

"Obesity is very complex," Lisa Oliver, the study's main author, said in an interview. "It's not just about eating well and exercising, but how do the environments in which you live influence your ability to engage in physical activity or eating healthy?"

The study suggests that in the fight to reduce childhood obesity, policies should target those environmental influences.

"Residing in a disadvantaged neighbourhood may promote weight gain through access to a less healthy food supply, limited access to recreation facilities and increased safety concerns," the study notes. It did not go in depth however, to examine how exactly the wealth of neighbourhoods influences the weight of children.

"Other research that has been done has shown that in low-income neighbourhoods, parents are more likely to report a lack of safe parks and playgrounds," Oliver added. "And other research using the same data has shown that children in low-income neighbourhoods have a lower participation rate in organized sports. These other factors may be influencing body weight, but we didn't look at those in this study."

Published recently in the journal BMC Public Health, and on Monday by Statistics Canada, the study examined the effects of neighbourhood income on children's body mass index (BMI) over an eight-year period, from early childhood (ages two and three) to early adolescence (ages 10 and 11). BMI is calculated by dividing weight in kilograms by height in metres squared.

After controlling for individual factors like family income and education, the study found that living in the "most poor" neighbourhood was associated with an increasing BMI over time, compared to "middle" income and "least poor" neighbourhoods.

"At ages two and three we don't see much of a difference between neighbourhood income and children's body weight and by ages 10 and 11 we see quite a big difference," Oliver explained.

By early adolescence, 40 per cent of the children in the poorest neighbourhoods were overweight or obese, compared to 30 per cent in the middle-income neighbourhoods and 27 per cent in the richest neighbourhoods.

Because the gap between neighbourhoods widened as the children aged, Oliver concludes that neighbourhood characteristics may have a greater influence as children get older. In other words, the longer children are exposed to a poor neighbourhood the greater their chances of having a higher BMI. The results also showed that children in rural areas have higher BMIs than children in urban areas.

Oliver analysed data from the Canadian National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth, beginning in 1994 with children who were two or three years old. The parents of 2,152 children reported height and weight measurements every two years until 2002. The neighbourhood income data were derived from the 1996 census and were divided into categories from "most poor" to "least poor."

 

http://billyadrian.blogspot.com/2008/02/risk-of-obesity-rises-in-poorer.html

 

kimping on Sleep May Make Children More Likely to Become Overweight or Obese

 

By Miranda Hitti

WebMD Medical News

 

Getting more sleep may help children avoid becoming overweight or obese.

That's according to a new review of 17 studies on sleep and childhood obesity.

The studies stretched from Europe to the U.S. to Asia. And around the world, the pattern was the same: Kids who didn't sleep enough were more likely to be overweight or obese.

Reviewer Youfa Wang, MD, PhD, an associate professor in the Center for Human Nutrition at Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health, offers these tips for parents:

• Remove the TV, computer, and video games from kids' bedrooms. "Therefore, children can have more time to sleep rather than be tempted to engage in these activities," Wang tells WebMD.
• Set earlier bedtimes for kids. Wang suggests reading to young kids to help them get to sleep earlier.
• Beat the morning rush by preparing the night before. That way, the whole family can sleep a little bit later.
• Be a good role model for diet and exercise -- childhood obesity isn't just about sleep.

The review appears in February's edition of Obesity.

Children's Sleep: How Much Is Enough?

The new review used the following benchmarks for kids' sleep, including naps and nightly sleep, during a typical day:

• Younger than 5: at least 11 hours
• Ages 5-10: at least 10 hours
• Ages 10 and older: at least 9 hours

Those thresholds, which are based on previous research, may not apply to everyone.

"Some people, because of their own biological differences or their quality of sleep, may need fewer hours of sleep than others," Wang tells WebMD.

Studying Childhood Obesity and Sleep

In the reviewed studies, parents reported how long their young kids slept. Adolescents reported their own sleep habits.

Wang's team pooled all that data and compared it to the children's BMI ( body mass index), which relates height to weight.

Compared with kids who got enough sleep, those who fell at least two hours short of the sleep benchmarks were almost twice as likely to be overweight or obese.

Children who missed the sleep benchmark by an hour were 58% more likely to be overweight or obese than kids who got enough sleep.

"For each hour increase in sleep, the risk of overweight/obesity was reduced on average by 9%," the researchers write.

Why the Findings?

The reviewed studies were observational, so it's not clear which came first: extra pounds or less sleep.

It's also not clear how sleep affects children's weight. But Wang notes several theories:

• More time awake means more time to eat.
• Less sleep at night makes for drowsier, less-active days (and fewer calories burned).
• Sleep shortfalls may affect certain hormones. "This may increase people's feelings of hunger and also affect their energy expenditure," Wang says.

The links between sleep and BMI were stronger for boys than girls. The reason for that isn't clear, Wang says.

What About Genes?

That doesn't mean that other factors -- including genes, diet, and exercise -- aren't important. Just yesterday, another team of researchers noted heredity's influence on childhood obesity.

"I think people should be aware of all the important potential risk factors," Wang says.

He points out that genes may only have their full effect when the conditions are right -- and in the case of obesity genes, that might mean being in a setting ripe with opportunities to overeat.

"It's a coin; which side do you want to pay more attention to?" Wang asks, putting genes on one side of the coin and environmental factors on the flip side.

"I think from a public health perspective, people should pay more attention to environmental and behavioral factors," Wang says. He notes that gene tests and gene therapy aren't yet available for obesity. And though you can't change your genes, behavior can bend.

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."