BODY WEIGHT, DIET, EXERCISE--MODULATION IN HISPANIC TEENS

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Enhancement of nutritional status and regular aerobic exercise of adolescents are specific national target goals for the year 2000. Adolescent diets have been characterized as grazing and widely diversified, including increases in morbid obesity; body building via amino acid supplementation; bulimia with cyclic bingeing-vomiting; and starvation via anorexia. Some degree of distorted body image is frequently present, reflecting the interest and concern of adolescents to achieve a perceived ideal body image as well as an individual personhood. Because diet/exercise have a profound impact on health, not only now but perhaps into the future, this proposal aims at TOP FIT-2000 for Hispanic boys and girls. This pilot health and nutrition research proposal will: 1) determine factors that modulate body weight as perceived by Hispanic teens; 2) characterize the diet pattern of Hispanic teens and how this may be reflected in selected anthropometric measurements (e.g. body weight, body mass index, mid-arm muscle circumference; 3) characterize the usual aerobic exercise pattern (energy expenditure) in relationship to selected anthropometric parameters (e.g., body weight, body mass index, mid-arm muscle circumference); 4) determine the impact of intense education on enhanced knowledge/understanding of energy balance concept, improved anthropometric measurements, and improved quality of nutrient/calorie intake. Simple anthropometric analysis that can be done by adolescents will provide them with practical tools to target their own desirable body weight and body mass index. Likewise, simple diet and exercise tools will make an ongoing assessment of these parameters for energy balance of interest to teens. Assessment of all initial screening parameters will be repeated in follow up for both control and experimental groups, with comparison to the initial parameters to determine significant changes since initial screening. We hypothesize that this "up-beat", fun, educational experience will result in improved understanding of energy balance, nutrition and exercise, and positively challenge them to TOP FIT 2000 and beyond.