Posts Tagged: overweight
Chronic disease on the rise among Latino population
The report, a first of its kind national survey, found that among Latinos with or without health insurance, multiple barriers to manage diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and asthma, continue to exist, including transportation to and from health centers, language and cultural issues and feelings of discrimination.
Among the report findings:
• Sixty percent of those who responded were told by a doctor that they have a chronic disease.
• Of those surveyed, 25 percent had visited a hospital emergency room for a chronic related disease in the last 12 months.
• About 75 percent of survey respondents were either overweight or obese.
“The participants of the survey are accessing health care but to manage a chronic disease is a complicated or complex problem that needs more than 15 minutes of interaction with a provider,” said Manuela McDonough, associate director of the Institute for Hispanic Health at the National Council of La Raza. “Our affiliates are doing the best job they can. But they are understaffed and underfunded and can't meet the demands of this growing population.”
Some of those surveyed were patients of the Southern California-based AltaMed, which runs a network of federally funded community clinics in Los Angeles and Orange counties.
The community clinics are geographically located in underserved areas, but income, poverty and cultural beliefs about mammograms, for example, contribute to the disparity gaps, regardless of health insurance coverage.
Among the recommendations made in the report is to encourage and support the work of promotoras, or health promoters in communities that can offer education and find services for those who need helping managing chronic conditions.
Source: Published originally on The Los Angeles Daily News as Chronic disease on the rise among Latino populationby Susan Abram, July 15, 2014.
Kids drop pounds, eat more veggies with nutrition program
The percentage of overweight or obese children in test schools dropped from 56 percent to 38 percent over the course of a single school year, thanks to a new nutrition program developed and tested in the classroom by nutrition researchers at the University of California, Davis.
The new program fits into the new Common Core educational standards.
"The education component of this program is intended to help children develop nutrition-related problem solving skills," said co-author Jessica Linnell, a senior doctoral candidate in the UC Davis Department of Nutrition. "We think that these skills, combined with knowledge about foods, may be critical in order for children to make healthy choices."
Researchers say the program could be adopted nationally at little cost to schools. The program was pilot-tested for this study in schools located in Sacramento and Stanislaus counties. Study findings were reported recently during the Experimental Biology 2014 meeting.
"When we designed the study, we anticipated short-term outcomes such as kids having more knowledge of nutrition or being able to identify more vegetables," said Rachel Scherr, assistant project scientist in the UC Davis Department of Nutrition and one of the study's lead investigators. "We always had a long-term goal of decreasing body mass index, but we didn't anticipate that it would happen in such a short timeframe, so we are thrilled."
In a randomized control study, the researchers found that fourth-graders who participated in the nutrition program ate substantially more vegetables and lowered their body mass index during the school year that the nutrition program was implemented.
Senior author Sheri Zidenberg-Cherr, a Cooperative Extension specialist In the Department of Nutrition and co-director of the UC Davis Center for Nutrition in Schools, said that the project could not have been possible without the work of a highly interdisciplinary team, including collaborators from University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources; the UC Davis departments of Nutrition, Human Ecology, Population Health and Reproduction, and Plant Sciences; the UC Davis Health System, Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing, Foods for Health Institute and Agricultural Sustainability Institute; and the University of Utah Department of Physics and Astronomy.
The study was funded by a UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources Competitive Grant.
Fourth-graders who participated in the nutrition program ate more vegetables.
Latino children in California eat fast food regularly
Among young Latino children, the rate is 70 percent; overall, one in ten young children eats three or more fast food meals per week. The majority of children also fall short of the state standard on fruit and vegetable consumption, with only 57 percent of parents reporting that their child ate at least five fruit and vegetable servings the previous day. Asian children have the lowest levels of fruit and vegetable consumption, and both Asian and Latino parents report lower levels of influence over their children’s diets than do White and African-American parents.
The report indicates that given the poor trajectory for children who are overweight before they reach age six, investments in programs that help reduce fast food consumption and promote eating more fruits and vegetables (for example, serving fruit instead of fruit juice) may be among the policy solutions that will help improve young children’s health.
Nationally, the prevalence of overweight and obesity among children started to rise in the 1980s and doubled between 1980 and 2000. Today, about one-fourth of children ages two to five are overweight or obese. Low-income and minority children are at greatest risk for overweight at an early age.
Despite the association between fast food and soda consumption, there has been a sharp decline in the number of very young children drinking sugar-sweetened beverages in California.
In 2009, the proportion of soda consumption remained significantly higher among Latino children than among White and Asian children. However, the percentage of Latino children who drank soda the previous day decreased from slightly less than half in 2003 (46.7 percent) to 22.1 percent in 2009.
Although the proportion of children drinking soda has declined significantly, Latino families merit particular attention regarding soda intake: half of all children under age five in California are Latino, and young Latino children continue to have significantly higher levels of soda consumption than young children in all other racial/ethnic groups.
Source: UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, Majority of Young Children in California Eat Fast Food Regularly but Drink Less Soda, November 2013.
California making headway in battle against childhood obesity
During the last three decades, the prevalence of overweight and obesity in the United States has increased dramatically in both adults and children. In the 1970s, about 15 percent of adults were obese; by 2004, the rate had climbed to 32 percent. Although the prevalence of obesity among children is lower than among adults, the rates among children and adolescents have increased considerably more. Between the early 1970s and 2003-2004, the prevalence of obesity nearly tripled among youth ages 12 to 19, from 6 percent to 17 percent, and more than quadrupled among children ages 6 to 11, rising from 4 percent to 19 percent. Recent data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey indicated that, between 2003-2004 and 2007-2008, there has been no significant change in the prevalence of obesity among children, suggesting that the prevalence of childhood obesity could be leveling off nationally. Nevertheless, rates remain high, with approximately 36 percent of 6- to 11-year-olds and 34 percent of 12- to 19-year-olds considered to be overweight or obese. Among these youth, 20 percent of 6- to 11-year-olds and 18 percent of 12- to19-year-olds are considered to be obese.5
Although the prevalence of obesity is high among all children regardless of race/ethnicity, children of color are disproportionately affected. Hispanic, African American, and American Indian girls and boys have higher rates of obesity than white children. Currently, African American girls and Mexican American boys in the United States have the highest rates of childhood obesity. Recent research suggests that these disparities are mirrored in California, with higher rates of obesity and overweight among Latinos, African Americans, and American Indians than among whites and Asians.
The California Center for Public Health Advocacy and the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research examined rates of overweight and obesity among children and adolescents in California.
Findings
More Than One-Third of Children in California Are Overweight or Obese
In California, more than one-third (38 percent) of fifth-, seventh-, and ninth-graders were overweight or obese in 2010. The prevalence of overweight and obesity among school-age children decreased slightly between 2005 and 2010, suggesting that California may be experiencing a leveling off in childhood obesity rates similar to that seen nationally. Nonetheless, rates remain high.
Overweight and Obesity Vary from Place to Place in California
The prevalence of overweight and obesity among fifth, seventh-, and ninth-grade children in 2010 varied widely from county to county. Of the 58 counties in California, the prevalence of overweight and obesity was greater than 43 percent in ten counties. Among those, the highest rates were in Del Norte (45 percent), Colusa (46 percent), and Imperial (47 percent) counties. Only nine counties in California had rates of overweight and obesity below 30 percent. The lowest rates among children in grades five, seven, and nine were in Placer (26 percent), El Dorado (26 percent), and Marin (25 percent) counties.
Thirty-one of California’s 58 counties experienced an increase in the rates of overweight and obesity between 2005 and 2010. Among these counties, five had rates at least 10 percent higher in 2010 than in 2005: Yuba, Mariposa, Amador, Colusa, and Del Norte counties. Twenty-six counties experienced a decrease in the prevalence of overweight and obesity among children in grades five, seven, and nine. Among these counties, seven had rates at least 5 percent lower in 2010 than in 2005: Placer, San Benito, San Mateo, Sutter, Plumas, Sierra, and Trinity counties.
This regional variation is likely due to a number of factors, including differences in demographic, social, economic, and environmental characteristics as well as differences in local policies and programs. For example, the food environment in California varies greatly from place to place—with some counties having limited availability of stores offering fresh fruits and vegetables compared to the availability of fast foods and convenience stores. Living in an unhealthy food environment has been linked to unhealthy eating behaviors, such as greater consumption of fast food and soda, and to a higher prevalence of obesity and diabetes. Similarly, resources and opportunities that encourage physical activity, such as parks and physical education programs, also vary by location. Increased access to parks and recreational resources can help protect against obesity in children.31
Source: UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and California Center for Public Health Advocacy, “A Patchwork of Progress: Changes in Overweight and Obesity Among California 5th, 7th, and 9th Graders, 2005-2010,”
New obesity and diabetes study
A new study published by UCLA using California Health Interview Survey data focuses on the prevalence of obesity and diabetes in California counties.Overall, more than 25 percent of California adolescents are overweight or obese. Counties in the San Joaquin valley had the highest percentage of residents who were overweight.
Details about the study can be found here.
The policy brief is located at:
http://www.healthpolicy.ucla.edu/pubs/files/Obesity-Diabetes_PB_081810.pdf.
Maps and related information are available at:
http://www.healthpolicy.ucla.edu/pubs/Publication.aspx?pubID=421.