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Second body mass study shows no improvement Friday, Sep 23, 2005 By Doug Thompson Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - Childhood obesity is not going down, according to the second annual findings of a body mass index survey of Arkansas public school students. The survey was released Thursday without comment by the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement, which collects and analyzes the information from the school districts. A telephone news conference by spokesmen for the center to answer questions is set for 10 a.m. today. The assessments showed that 38 percent of Arkansas public school students had a potential obesity problem, the report stated, the same result as last year's study. "Specifically, 21 percent of the state's public school students met or exceeded the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's criteria for being overweight, while 17 percent of the students were at risk for overweight." Being overweight or at risk for being overweight are considered the two highest-risk categories. In all, 39 percent of boys and 37 percent of girls were overweight or at risk for overweight, according to the study. Students in Madison County had the lowest percentage of overweight students, with 14.2 percent, according to the survey's charts. Benton County was the only other Arkansas county where that figure was less than 17 percent. Lee County was the highest with 27.6 percent. Calhoun County had the most children reported as underweight, at 3.2 percent. Participation by schools in the second annual study was better this year, with 25,000 more children measured and reported, according to the study. The results showed "no area of the state, type of school, or demographic group of children are spared the risk of this epidemic," the study said. There are ethnic differences, however. "While 36 percent of Caucasian youth were in a high-risk category, 41 percent of African?American youth and 47 percent of Hispanic youth were in a high-risk category," according to the study. "Examination of gender differences within ethnic groups revealed even more alarming results: More than half (51 percent) of Hispanic males were classified as overweight or at risk for overweight and 44 percent of African?American females were overweight or at risk for overweight." Approximately one-third of pupils starting kindergarten or elementary school were either overweight - 17 percent - or at risk for overweight - 18 percent, the study said. The occurrence of obesity increased until fifth through seventh-grades when 42 percent of children were in one of the high-risk categories, the study said. "Through the high school years, the proportion of adolescents in one of the two high-risk categories decreased, largely due to the reduction in the numbers of females in the heaviest risk group," the study said. Nevertheless, 36 percent of graduating boys and 33 percent of graduating girls remained in one of the two high-risk groups, the study said. Forty-three percent of the school districts had more than 40 percent of their students in the overweight or at risk for overweight categories. The body mass index is a calculation based on height and weight. The measurement is required for all public school students in Arkansas. The Center for Health Improvement had planned to release the study today but its effort to send out an embargoed version of the results Thursday for release on Friday was challenged by the Arkansas Times, a Little Rock-based weekly, which said on its Internet site the information was public information, paid for with public funds, and should be released. |
