Schools Making Progress in Fighting Childhood Obesity

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) announced the findings from a comprehensive study of schools across the country. The School Health Policies and Programs Study (SHPPS) 2006 shows that there is considerable progress being made in American schools to promote the health and well-being of students, but there is still much that needs to be done.

The SHPPS is conducted every six years, beginning in 1994. The Study surveys school policies and programs ranging from nutrition and physical education to tobacco prevention. The SHPPS evaluates programs on the state and district level, as well individual schools. The findings were just published in the October 2007 Journal of School Health.

Some good news for nutritional standards is that the number of schools offering deep-fried potatoes has dropped more than 20 percent from 2000. The percentage of schools using healthy food preparations, such as trimming fat of meat and using part-skim or low-fat cheese, is increasing. Also, more and more states are prohibiting vending machines, up to 32 percent of states (from just 8 percent in 2000).

The news is not as sunny when the individual states are analyzed, however, as only four states (Alabama, Louisiana, Maine and New Mexico) prohibit vending machines in schools. But many other states at least recommend prohibiting the machines that offer low-nutrient, high-fat snacks or soft drinks. When it comes to advertising for candy, soft-drinks, and fast food restaurants, only New York bans all forms of advertising.

When it comes to physical education, the findings are a mixed bag at best. The percentages are up for states that require recess for elementary students, but that percentage is only 11.8%, up from 4% in 2000. States that require recess are California, Connecticut, Delaware, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wisconsin. States that recommend recess are Arkansas, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, and Utah. With the alarming increase in childhood obesity, it would seem reasonable that more schools would encourage kids to get out and run around for at least a half-hour a day.

Physical education classes for elementary students is very high, so maybe that makes up for the lack of recess. Over 93 percent of school districts require PE classes on the elementary level. There are four states that do not require PE for any level of students: Alaska, Colorado, Michigan, and Oklahoma. When individual schools are accounted for, that means that one fifth of school in the US do not require PE classes.

On the issue of tobacco use prevention, there was an 18 percent increase of schools that prohibited all tobacco use on school property and off-campus school-related events. But sadly, that means that there are still 36 percent of all schools that have no such ban on tobacco products.

The director of the CDC's Division of Adolescent and School Health, Howell Wechsler, stated in the CDC press release regarding the SHPPS, "If we want to build on the improvements that schools have made over the past six years, we need to involve many people and programs. Families, schools, school boards, and school administrators all need to work together to develop and implement policies and programs that promote health and safety among our nation′s young people."

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention