Examining Obesity Declines Among School Children: The Role of Changes in the Food and Physical Activity Environments

项目摘要 拟议的项目旨在确定食物和体力活动中的可变因素 (Pa)有助于学龄儿童肥胖率下降的环境。童年 肥胖与心血管疾病的高风险有关，无论是在儿童时期还是在 后来长大成人。尽管美国的总体肥胖率仍然很高，但也有一些令人振奋的报告 在全国特定的亚群中出现下降。然而，人们对其原因知之甚少。 这样的下降。该项目旨在确定学校和学校中食物和PA环境的变化 在K-12的一个小组中，预测持续肥胖的周围社区随着时间的推移而下降 并探索这些预测因素是否因学生的种族/民族、年龄和性别而不同。 该项目还将确定最常见的社区和学校层面的变化 在持续肥胖的学校中有所下降，并检查是否有明显的变化 不同的种族/民族、年龄和性别。这项研究将前瞻性地跟踪120所学校(30,000所 学生/年)在八年的学习期间。基于我们的试点数据和建立的融洽关系 在学校护士的帮助下，专业测量的身高、体重和学生的人口统计数据将 在四个时间点领取。与此同时，学校护士将接受调查，以确定变化 在学校的食物和PA环境中(例如，沙拉吧、自助餐厅的饮用水、课间休息)和 学校周围食物和PA环境的变化将被记录下来(例如，新的/ 翻修公园和步道，升级街角商店)。将对更改进行地理编码以建立 离学校近。我们提议的研究的影响来自于我们已经确定了学校 对于经历肥胖率下降和上升的研究，以及我们识别 环境中的可变因素，这些因素可能与不同年龄、性别、 和种族/民族团体。这些发现将为开发定制的产品提供关键证据 减轻儿童肥胖症负担的社区和学校干预。

Project Summary The proposed project is designed to identify alterable factors in the food and physical activity (PA) environment that contribute to declines in obesity rates among school children. Childhood obesity has been associated with higher risk for cardiovascular disease both during childhood and later as adults. While overall obesity rates remain high in the US, there have been promising reports of declines among specific subgroups across the country. Yet, little is known about the causes of such declines. This project aims to identify changes in the food and PA environments in schools and the surrounding communities that predict sustained obesity declines over time among a panel of K-12 schools, and explore whether these predictors differ by race/ethnicity, age, and gender of students. The project will also identify those community- and school-level changes that are most common among schools with sustained obesity declines and examine whether the distinguishing changes differ by race/ethnicity, age, and gender. The study will prospectively follow 120 schools (30,000 students/year) over the eight-year study period. Building on our pilot data and established rapport with school nurses, professionally measured heights, weights, and demographic data on students will be collected at four time points. At parallel times, school nurses will be surveyed to identify changes in food and PA environments in the schools (e.g., salad bars, drinking water in cafeterias, recess) and changes in the food and PA environment surrounding schools will be documented (e.g., new / renovated parks and trails and upgraded corner stores). Changes will be geocoded to establish proximity to schools. The Impact of our proposed research derives from our having identified schools for study that have experienced declines and increases in obesity rates and our ability to identify alterable factors in the environment that can be linked to obesity trends among varied age, gender, and race/ethnicity groups. The findings will provide critical evidence for developing tailored community and school interventions for reducing the burden of childhood obesity.