News 20 I Friday, June 4, 2004 The Orange County Register

Focus HEALTH

Arkansas child-obesity data reflective of problem nationwide

"A year from now, we'll know parents are taking this seriously and encouraging healthier habits.... Some as simple as saying, 'You're not going to sit in front of the computer screen with a bag of potato chips.'" ARKANSAS GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE 		State-mandated study provides most recent far-reaching look into issue. sults immediately," said Gov. Mike Huckabee, who has lost more than 100 pounds since being diagnosed last year with diabetes. Nationwide, two-thirds of American adults are classified as either overweight or obese by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And while some studies indicate that the South has a higher rate of people who are overweight than the national average, some researchers believe the Arkansas numbers are reflective of kids across the country. Individual findings are sent to the students' parents with guidelines on a healthy lifestyle. Because the findings don't consider muscle mass, parents are asked to take presumably overweight children to a doctor to see if their child is truly unhealthy. "A parent may be aware that the child is overweight," Huckabee said, but may not

Obesity prevalent in Arkansas school kids
By CRISTINA RODRIGUEZ
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LITTLE ROCK, ARK. Forty percent of public schoolchildren in Arkansas are overweight, and nearly one in four is obese, a sign that obesity among children nationwide is probably far worse than health officials had thought. The findings are the broadest and most recent comprehensive look at children's weights, the result of a state law in Arkansas, where state officials have made obesity a top issue. "I think we'll find as we go along that Arkansas is not that much more obese than other parts of the country," said Dr. Garden Johnston, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics. The Arkansas data is "the best that		 we have because it's cross-sectional," Johnston said. The Arkansas numbers paint a more dire picture than previous national studies, which have indicated that about 30 percent of American children are overweight or obese. Those falling into the obese category account for about 15 percent. The Arkansas results, released Thursday in Williams-burg, Va., at a Time-ABC News obesity summit, represent 276,000 of the state's 450,000 public school students. Arkansas already has removed vending machines from elementary school campuses and set up a Child Health Advisory Committee to help parents get their children to normal weights. "I hope we start seeing re
realize the "very serious medical consequences" of obesity. Johnston said the Arkansas study will enable researchers to compare data across socio-economic and racial groups and identify trends. Experts say children develop most eating habits at home, and changing attitudes there is important in the battle against obesity. Carrie Roberson of Arka- delphia took her fourth-grade son to the doctor when .his weight problem was diagnosed through the new" school policy - and he changed his behavior himself. "It was very good information. Having any kind of indicator on how we can keep our children healthy as a parent is useful," she said.