Newswise — A study by new Baylor business professor Dr. Brennan Davis was selected by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as “the most influential child obesity research for the past year.”
Dr. Davis’ study, “Proximity of Fast-food Restaurants to Schools and Adolescent Obesity” found that students of schools with fast-food restaurants nearby “consumed fewer servings of fruits and vegetables, consumed more servings of soda, and were more likely to be overweight or obese than were youths whose schools were not near fast-food restaurants.”
Davis and co-author Dr. Christopher Carpenter, of the University of California Irvine, examined data from over 500,000 middle and high school students who participated in the California Healthy Kids Survey from 2002-2005.
While other studies reveal that fast-food restaurants are often concentrated in school areas, Davis’ research actually demonstrates the impact. “Exposure to poor-quality food environments has important effects on adolescent eating patterns.” Children attending schools that have fast-food within a half mile are more likely to be overweight.
With over nine million obese children and adolescents in the United States, Davis and Carpenter insist policy intervention is necessary. Efforts to limit fast-food restaurants near schools and to provide students with healthier alternatives would help reduce child obesity.
Dr. Brennan Davis joins the Baylor faculty this year as an associate professor in marketing at the Hankamer School of Business. He previously worked at the School of Business and Management, Azusa Pacific University near Los Angeles, Calif. Davis holds a doctorate in marketing from The Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California Irvine, an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business and a B.S. in mathematics from UCLA.
“Proximity of Fast-food Restaurants to Schools and Adolescent Obesity” is published in the March 2009 issue of the American Journal of Public Health. It was voted “most influential research” by readers and subscribers of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation website. RWJF is a philanthropy established by the founder of Johnson and Johnson and dedicated to “improving the health and health care of all Americans.”
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