Annual Texas Obesity Awareness Week starts Sept. 12 to highlight statewide efforts
Gone are the days when a child’s weight problems could be brushed off as “baby fat.” Child obesity has more than tripled over the last 30 years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In Texas, nearly half of all fourth-grade students are overweight or obese. It has reached epidemic proportions.
Sept. 12-16 marks the 4th Annual Texas Obesity Awareness Week, which will bring attention to efforts being made around the state to change these staggering obesity statistics.
One research-driven program, the Coordinated Approach To Child Health (CATCH), at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth), has been proven effective in making a difference in the health of school-children across the state. It is led by Deanna M. Hoelscher, Ph.D., and Steven Kelder, Ph.D., director and co-director of the Michael & Susan Dell Center for Healthy Living at The University of Texas School of Public Health Austin Regional Campus, part of UTHealth.
UTHealth’s Michael & Susan Dell Center for Healthy Living will host its annual presentations and an awards ceremony Sept. 13 in Austin. Texas Obesity Awareness Week was established in 2007 by House Bill 2312 to bring awareness to the health risks associated with obesity and encourage Texans to achieve and maintain a healthy lifestyle.
“Children who are overweight in their early years are more likely to remain overweight into adulthood,” Kelder says. “They can face problems such as type 2 diabetes, joint and heart issues and asthma, as well as dealing with the social stigma of being overweight.” CATCH, approved by the Texas Education Agency and State Board of Education, focuses on a coordinated approach to increase physical activity, encourage healthy eating and prevent tobacco use in ethnically diverse school children. It also teaches habits that can be carried into adulthood.
To date, CATCH has been implemented in more than 2,500 Texas schools and impacts more than 800,000 Texas school children. CATCH has been proven effective in promoting health with low-income and ethnically diverse children, according to research by Hoelscher and Kelder.
El Paso Independent School District (EPISD) was one of the first districts to adopt CATCH on a broad scale. Seventy-five percent of El Pasoans don’t get enough exercise and 33 percent are considered overweight versus 28.6 percent of the state population, according to the Paso del Norte Health Foundation.
“Student health literacy was very low,” says Don Disney, director of Health & Wellness at EPISD. “CATCH definitely broke the barrier in teaching health to students and teachers and subsequently families in the area.” Efforts in the El Paso area combined with community involvement resulted in a 7 percent decrease in the prevalence of obesity among El Paso fourth graders, according to Hoelscher’s School Physical Activity and Nutrition research, which was published in the journal Obesity. “Obesity prevention measures with community involvement was associated with a significant decrease in child obesity prevalence in El Paso and suggests it takes an entire community to see change,” says Hoelscher.
The district administrators and CATCH program team members worked closely to establish the School Health Advisory Council, a community and parent organization that has helped create policy to compliment the curriculum in El Paso.“Over the last two years we have lowered the average BMI number and improved fitness,” Disney says. “CATCH provided us with the tools to make a difference in the lives of our children.”
Teachers, nutrition personnel and school staff help reinforce health behaviors throughout the school day and create a healthy environment – an important component of the program. Evidence from across the state confirms teachers are taking notice of changes in their students.
Marta Mixa, a fourth-grade teacher at Bammel Elementary School in the Spring Independent School District, noticed a significant change in her students’ behavior and attention. “My students were more alert and had better focus,” she says. Mixa, an avid runner, found it easy to implement the CATCH curriculum into her classroom but admits there was a slight challenge convincing students CATCH could help them stay healthier, have more energy to do the things they enjoyed and get better grades.
Mixa won over her students. “I noticed they started to bring healthier snacks to school, such as fresh fruits, yogurt, string cheese, whole-grain cereals and carrot sticks,” Mixa says. Mixa strongly believes CATCH helped her students’ academic performance as well. “Their stamina increased and they were able to concentrate, stay on task and work on lengthy projects,” Mixa says. Research at UTHealth has shown the CATCH program helps to improve disadvantaged children’s academic achievement scores.
In 2009, CATCH was implemented in Texas middle schools. “We had fewer behavior issues in the morning because kids were offered ‘open gym’ before classes started,” says Valerie Phillips, athletic director at C.D. Fulkes Middle School in Round Rock Independent School District. Phillips also noticed students making better food choices in the cafeteria.
Kelder and Hoelscher believe training and educating teachers on implementing health components into their daily classroom curriculum can positively affect the well-being of children in a healthy environment during the day. “We hope one day that every city, school district and school in Texas will have a CATCH program,” says Kelder.
“The future health of our children and society depends on implementing effective obesity prevention measures that target the entire community,” says Hoelscher.
The Michael & Susan Dell Center for Healthy Living was established to conduct research to better understand and influence behaviors and environmental conditions that affect healthy living, with a vision of “healthy children in a healthy world.” The Center was founded in 2006 with a grant from the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation and is housed at The University of Texas School of Public Health Austin Regional Campus, part of UTHealth.
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