Outside interviewed Nutrition Policy Institute researcher and physical activity expert Hannah Thompson for a March 31, 2024 article, “School Fitness Testing Is a Nightmare. Should We Get Rid of It?” In the article, Thompson addresses why cardiovascular fitness is a better predictor of children's future health than body mass index, which is commonly known as BMI. “Even in the ‘overweight' category, BMI is not necessarily predictive of poor metabolic health. Cardiovascular fitness is.” Her interview provided context to recent changes in school fitness testing in California. The California Department of Education suspended student body mass index reporting as part of FITNESSGRAM® data collection in January 2022, citing concerns about mental health, accessibility and gender equity. “PE is not supposed to impact BMI,” said Thompson. “The whole idea of physical education—apart from recess or other physical activity opportunities—is to help younger students build the foundation and skills to go on and be active later in life.”
National Public Radio's Shots health news interviewed Nutrition Policy Institute's Hannah Thompson on a 2022 study that showed that letters home from school on childhood obesity had no effect on student weight. The interview was featured in an April 9, 2024 NPR article titled “Arkansas led the nation sending letters home from school about obesity. Did it help?” Thompson is quoted, "It's such a tiny-touch behavioral intervention,” stating that parents don't know what to do with information about their child being overweight. “You find out your child is asthmatic, and you can get an inhaler, right?" Thompson said. "You find out that your child is overweight and where do you even go from there? What do you do?” Thompson and her collaborators' study findings are timely as school districts across the nation, including in California, are eliminating measurement of students' height and weight to calculate and report body mass index, commonly known as BMI, which is used as a proxy for body fat composition to assess for overweight and obesity. This is due to recent scrutiny from the American Medical Association of using BMI alone to assess obesity, given it does not consider differences across racial and ethnic groups, sex, gender and age.
The Nutrition Policy Institute, founded in 2014, is celebrating ten years of high-impact research. A new video in Spanish highlight's NPI's accomplishments and contributions to public health in California related to universal school meals, improving the federal Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (commonly known as WIC), provide fresh food in correctional facilities, improving quality and access to drinking water in schools and child care, and promoting access to fresh produce for families in need by promoting CalFresh (nationally known as SNAP) benefit use at farmers Markets. The video also highlight's the NPI Student Fellowship which aims to foster diversity in the next generation of public health nutrition leaders. The Spanish video description is below:
UC ANR y NPI Celebran una década de impacto en la comunidad
Únete a nosotros para celebrar una década de logros del Instituto de Políticas de Nutrición (NPI). Descubre cómo nuestras iniciativas han transformado la salud pública en California:
- Comidas Escolares para Todos: Asegurando que cada niño tenga acceso a comidas nutritivas en la escuela.
- Mejoras al Programa WIC: Optimizando el apoyo nutricional para mujeres y niños de bajos ingresos.
- De la Granja a las Correccionales: Proporcionando alimentos frescos en instalaciones correccionales.
- Beca Estudiantil NPI: Fomentando la próxima generación de líderes en nutrición pública.
- Agua Potable en Escuelas: Garantizando la calidad del agua para una mejor salud infantil.
- Beneficios de CalFresh en Mercados de Agricultores: Promoviendo el acceso a productos frescos para familias necesitadas.
Tu apoyo es fundamental para continuar nuestra misión. Contribuye hoy y ayúdanos a seguir mejorando la nutrición en California.
The video, developed by the University of California, Agriculture and Natural Resource's News and Outreach in Spanish, and a complementary news story, "Instituto de Políticas de Nutrición: 10 años de hacer que las opciones saludables sean más accesibles para todos," are available online.
Elsa Esparza joined the Nutrition Policy Institute at the University of California, Agriculture and Natural Resources on March 18, 2024 as a part-time project policy analyst. Elsa is a registered dietitian and received her master's degree in public health from the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. She previously worked with NPI in 2019 as a UC Global Food Initiative graduate student fellow. In addition to her current role at NPI, Elsa serves as the program director for the new Dietetic Internship at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. Elsa is eager to contribute to research that will inform policies aimed at eliminating health disparities, especially among early childhood populations. She is also passionate about mentoring students who aspire to pursue careers in public health nutrition. Elsa has worked in many settings where public health nutrition is at the forefront, ranging from a federally qualified health center, an anti-hunger advocacy non-profit, a research institution, a family foundation, and now at the University of California. In her role at NPI, Elsa will serve as a co-project manager for the California School Meals for All evaluation.
A recent study finds that comprehensive school-based Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program-Education, also known as SNAP-Ed, interventions focused on improving wellness policies and increasing physical activity opportunities are associated with better student fitness. Researchers identified predominant combinations of school-based, physical activity-focused SNAP-Ed interventions and then looked at how they affected student fitness. Study data included over 442,000 fifth and seventh-grade students attending nearly 4,300 public schools in California communities with low-income in 2016-2017. Students in schools with SNAP-Ed interventions combining policy changes and improved physical activity opportunities had better cardiorespiratory fitness, as measured by VO2 max. On average, these students had 1.17 mL/kg/min greater VO2max than students at schools without interventions. They also had greater VO2 max compared to students in schools with any other type of intervention combination. This study suggests that focusing on both wellness policy changes and increased physical activity opportunities may have a synergistic effect and may warrant prioritization in SNAP-Ed program planning and implementation. The study, published in Preventive Medicine, was conducted by Nutrition Policy Institute researchers Sridharshi Hewawitharana, Gail Woodward-Lopez, Hannah Thompson, and Wendi Gosliner; Arizona State University researchers Punam Ohri-Vachaspati and Francesco Acciai; and California Department of Public Health researcher John Pugliese.