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Trimming kids down

Should your child be sent home with a body-fat grade?
Students at an elementary school in Chula Vista, Calif., can participate in an early morning running program. Amid alarming national statistics showing an epidemic in childhood obesity, hundreds of thousands of students across the country are being weighed and measured. The Chula Vista Elementary School District is being touted as a model for its methods that have resulted in motivating the community to take action.

CHULA VISTA, Calif. – The Chula Vista Elementary School District not only measures the academic progress of Marina Beltran’s second-grader, but also measures her son’s body fat.

Every two years, Antonio Beltran, like his classmates, steps on a scale. Trained district personnel also measure his height and then use the two figures to calculate his body mass index, an indicator of body fat.

The calculation isn’t reported to Beltran or her son, who cannot see the readout on the scale that has a remote display. Instead, it’s used by the district to collect local data about children’s weight.

Beltran supports her son’s school in measuring students because the data has brought in help to address obesity, which can lead to diabetes and other illnesses tied to a lifetime of poor habits.

But the practice hasn’t been embraced everywhere.

Other school districts have angered parents and eating-disorder groups by conducting screenings to identify overweight children and send home what critics call obesity report cards or “fat letters.”

Amid the nation’s childhood obesity epidemic, schools in nearly a quarter of all states record BMI scores, measuring hundreds of thousands of students.

Some, like the Chula Vista Elementary School District, do what is known as surveillance, in which students are measured to identify how many are at risk for weight-related health problems, but they remain anonymous. Other districts do screenings to track the weight of individual students and notify parents whose children are classified at an unhealthy weight.

Chula Vista is being touted for its methods that have resulted in motivating the community to take action. When nearly 25,000 students were measured in 2010, it discovered about 40 percent of its children were obese or overweight.

Officials used the data to make a color-coded obesity map of the district and showed the community. Instead of creating a stir, the information acted as a distress call, bringing in help. Schools boosted partnerships with doctors. They planted gardens, banned cupcakes at school birthdays and tracked kids’ activity levels.

Little is known about the outcomes of school-based measurement programs, including effects on attitudes and behaviors of youth and their families. As a result, no consensus exists on their utility for young people, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Statewide childhood obesity rates in Arkansas have remained relatively stable since it became the first state in 2003 to mandate school-based screenings.

Arkansas has become a model for how to do it, as well as Chula Vista’s school district and San Diego County’s Health and Human Services Agency, which also now records children’s BMI scores.

A kit by Chula Vista for other schools recommends a professional digital scale with a remote display, so only trained staff sees the number and not listing children’s names in any report. Mirroring CDC’s guidance for schools, staff members explain to parents how the information will be used, and they can opt out.

The district found schools with the most overweight students were in the poorest areas and had the smallest number of parks and the highest concentration of fast-food restaurants.

The cafeteria at Lilian J. Rice Elementary, Antonio Beltran’s school, now offers fruit and vegetables from local farms and eliminated chocolate milk. Parent Teacher Association fundraisers sell bracelets and magazines instead of nachos and candy.

“We’re not yet where we want to be, but we’re close,” Principal Ernesto Villanueva said. “Considering 80 percent of our most common disease could be prevented by changing what we eat, that’s pretty powerful stuff.”

Students will be measured again this fall.



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