Join our Mailing List!
Please click the link below to sign up for your community paper mailing list. Stay up to date with all the events going on in your community as well as the latest news.Sign Up Today!
CDC Fitness Ratings on Youth
By: B. Jones
printable version
e-mail this story
With children’s obesity rates on the rise, more and more families are turning to the government for information. According to Centers for Disease Control and Trust for America’s Health 2007 rankings, Washington, D.C., ranks first and worst in children’s obesity at 39 percent.
Twenty-one states saw an increase in obesity rates for children and none of the states had a decrease.
Kansas ranked 21st at 30 percent and Missouri ranked 17th with 31 percent. These rankings are based on body mass index ratios, which is a calculation of height and weight ratios.
As controversial a topic as this is, the bottom line is children are not getting enough exercise and they could be developing an unhealthy lifestyle. Child obesity rates have tripled since 1980 and continue to grow faster than adult obesity rates. Nearly all obese children will fight health problems for the rest of their lives.
According to the 2006 National Survey of Children’s Health, about 10 million or 31 percent of U.S. children are obese or overweight. According to studies by the National Institutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control, children who are overweight are at risk for many health issues, including high cholesterol, high blood pressure and Type 2 diabetes. Unless addressed now, this could lead to adult illnesses such as heart disease, stroke and several types of cancer.
Nationally, about half of all children ages 6 to 17 go without sufficient daily exercise.
Many agencies recommend that children and adolescents participate in at least 60 minutes of moderate physical activity every day. So why isn’t this happening? Long school hours and homework, time spent traveling to and from school, family habits or lack of family support, the Internet, video games and TV, and the reduction in physical fitness classes and recess.
Plus there is an economic reason: Some families cannot afford gym or sports league memberships.
Many of our public schools’ emphasis is on the No Child Left Behind Act, which is forcing schools to divert limited resources from programs that are not tested, like physical education, music and art. According to CDC statistics, only 54 percent of our high school students have physical education at least once a week.
A national opinion survey conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research Inc. last year found that 81 percent of Americans believe the government should have a role in addressing the obesity crisis.
People strongly supported government working on proposals to expand education programs about healthy living, to provide low-cost access to exercise programs, and to reduce the marketing of unhealthy foods.
Two-thirds said children do not participate in adequate amounts of physical activity during the school day or engage in enough physical activity outside of school. Seventy percent wanted to increase physical education in schools.
Jones has a master’s degree in management/marketing and certification from the American Council on Exercise and the International Sports Sciences Association.