Sep

24

La. gets a 'D' in childhood obesity - The Times-Picayune - NOLA.com- Topic: Childhood Obesity News

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BATON ROUGE — A health research center released a new report card Monday on children’s health assigning Louisiana an overall grade of D based on the prevalence of obesity and insufficient exercise programs for young people. The Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge released the study, along with recommendations for governments and communities to increase physical activities among children and to reduce the ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in organized exercise regimens. The study, Louisiana’s Report Card on Physical Activity and Health for Children and Youth, will be the focus of the center’s conference starting Wednesday in Baton Rouge to examine solutions to childhood obesity and diabetes. In Louisiana, 36 percent of children ages 10 to 17 are overweight compared with the national percentage of 31 percent, according to the national Child Policy Research Center and the Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative/Data Resource Center. The Louisiana report card gave grades for several indicators of health activities and state policies and procedures, including a D for physical activity and for the amount of time spent watching TV or passive interaction with a computer. Training of school personnel in physical activity got a C while overall government strategies and policy took a B-minus. Read Childhood Obesity

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