American journal of preventive medicine
-
Low-income and minority children have higher rates of obesity and overweight. Greater understanding of their food access is important. Because of higher rates of walking to school in these populations, these children likely have greater exposure to the food environment immediately around their schools. Mobile food vendors are an understudied aspect of the food environment in U.S. urban areas. ⋯ Mobile food vendors in urban areas contribute to after-school snacking among children, and should be considered as a component of the school food environment.
-
Interventions to increase children's physical activity have had limited success. One reason may be that children and their parents overestimate children's levels of physical activity, although there is a small amount of data on this topic. ⋯ Most parents of inactive children wrongly consider their children to be sufficiently active; parents of children with a lower fat mass index appear to assume that their children are adequately active. Increasing awareness regarding health benefits of physical activity beyond weight control might help reverse misperceptions of physical activity levels and encourage behavior change.
-
With the epidemic of childhood obesity, there is national interest in state-level school policies related to nutrition and physical activity, policies adopted by states, and relationships to youth obesity. ⋯ States appear to be doing a better job adopting FSN policies than PA or WA policies, and adoption of policies is correlated with youth obesity. Continued monitoring of these policies seems to be warranted.
-
Research evaluating community health worker (CHW) programs inherently involves these natural community leaders in the research process, and often represents community-based participatory research (CBPR). Interpreting the results of CHW intervention studies and replicating their findings requires knowledge of how CHWs are selected and trained. ⋯ Consistent reporting of CHW selection and training will allow consumers of intervention research to better interpret study findings. A standard approach to reporting selection and training processes will also more effectively guide the design and implementation of future CHW programs. All community-based researchers must find a balance between describing the research process and reporting more traditional scientific content. The current conceptual model provides a guide for standard reporting in the CHW literature.
-
Menu-labeling legislation is a proposed public health intervention for poor diet and obesity that requires chain restaurants to provide nutrition information on menus and menu boards. The restaurant industry has strongly opposed menu-labeling legislation. Using scientific evidence, this paper counters industry arguments against menu labeling by demonstrating that consumers want chain restaurant nutrition information to be disclosed; the current methods of providing nutrition information are inadequate; the expense of providing nutrition information is minimal; the government has the legal right to mandate disclosure of information; consumers have the right to know nutrition information; a lack of information reduces the efficiency of a market economy; and menu labeling has the potential to make a positive public health impact.