Report card grades state ‘D’ in children’s health

• By EMILY KERN HEBERT
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Sep 23, 2008 - Page: 1E - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Louisiana earned an overall grade of “D” in physical activity and health of children in the state’s first-ever report card on the subject.

The state’s lowest grade was “F” in the category of number of children who are overweight or obese.

More than one-third of the state’s children are in that group, said Peter Katzmarzyk, associate executive director for population science at Pennington Biomedical Research Center. He spoke Monday to the Baton Rouge Press Club.

“Childhood obesity is fast becoming the greatest public health challenge facing America,” Katzmarzyk said. “During the 1980s and 1990s, the number of overweight and obese children skyrocketed, resulting in a growing number of children facing health consequences that were traditionally only experienced by adults.”

Katzmarzyk was the chairman of the research advisory committee that assigned an overall grade and grades in several specific areas relating to child health based on existing data.

“A grade of ‘A’ means our children are physically active and at optimum health,” Katzmarzyk said. The report card was released Monday.

It gives the following grades:

• Physical activity: D
• Amount of time spent watching TV or passive interaction with a computer: D
• Sports participation: C
• Weight and obesity: F
• Physical activity in school: D
• Training of school personnel in physical activity: C
• Physical and psychosocial wellbeing: Incomplete
• Government strategies and policy: B -
• Government investment: Incomplete
• Industry and philanthropic investment: Incomplete
• Family perceptions and roles regarding physical activity: Incomplete

The grade assignments were based on the most recent available sources, including the 1997 Youth Risk Behavior Survey and the 2003 National Survey of Children’s Health. Incomplete grade were given where data was insufficient to make a conclusion.

One of the recommendations coming out of the report card is for researchers to collect more up-to-date information on physical activity and health in the state.

“It takes resources,” Katzmarzyk said. “We need to buy into it.”

Some highlights of the report card include the following:

• In Louisiana, 53 percent of youth spend more than two hours a day watching TV or playing video games.
• Less than 30 percent of Louisiana youth get vigorous physical activity every day.
• Physical education class participation drops dramatically from ninth to 12th grade, from 64 percent to 26 percent.
• Louisiana has a state-created Council on Obesity Prevention and Management.
• Several laws have been passed recently to promote active living, including requiring physical activity in elementary school.

Katzmarzyk was a leader in a similar effort to produce a national report card in Canada.

He noted that Canada received a “D” five years ago in its first report card and the country has remained a “D” in 2008.

“We haven’t budged the physical activity levels,” he said. “What we’ve seen is increased awareness.”

He compared the effort to lower childhood obesity to the one waged against smoking, saying it took years for smoking levels to fall.