The national study of more than 18,000 school children found that
from the autumn start of kindergarten to the spring semester of
second grade, the prevalence of obesity increased from 8.9 to 11.5
percent. During that same period, the proportion of overweight kids
climbed from 23.3 to 28.7 percent.
None of these gains in numbers of obese or overweight kids happened
during the school year, however. All of the increases in what’s
known as body mass index (BMI) – a measure of weight relative to
height – occurred during summer vacations.
“The structured nature of the school day, with its scheduled
exercise periods and limited opportunities to eat, helps students
maintain a healthy BMI,” said study co-author Paul von Hippel, a
health policy researcher at the University of Texas, Austin.
“By contrast, we speculate that many non-school environments are
relatively unstructured and unsupervised, allowing children to
indulge in sedentary activities and excessive snacking,” von Hippel
added by email.
To assess the influence of school attendance on child obesity,
researchers examined data on kids’ height and weight at the
beginning and end of each academic year from the fall of 2010 until
the spring of 2013.
At the start of kindergarten, 23 percent of the children were
overweight and 9 percent were obese, researchers report in the
journal Obesity.
During each of the two summers in the study, the proportion of
overweight and obese kids increased by approximately one percentage
point per month.
There were no meaningful increases in the numbers of overweight or
obese kids during the academic year.
This doesn’t prove summer vacations cause obesity or that school
attendance prevents it, but the findings do suggest major risk
factors for putting on too much weight during childhood exist
outside of schools, the authors conclude.
During vacations, risk factors for weight gain include getting less
sleep, watching more television and exercising less than during the
school year, the researchers speculate.
“When comparing weekends to school days, studies have often reported
that children sleep less and have more variable sleep, are less
physically active, more sedentary, and consume unhealthier diets on
weekends,” said Dr. Paul Collings of the Bradford Teaching Hospitals
Foundation Trust in the U.K.
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“If summer vacation can be considered a very long weekend, then this
will take its toll,” Collings, who wasn’t involved in the study,
added by email.
Although the study doesn’t offer evidence of problems like excessive
snacking or insufficient sleep and exercise during the summer, it
still makes sense for parents to keep an eye on these things, said
Dr. Jonathan Mitchell of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
“Parents should be thoughtful about the potential for rapid weight
gain to occur during the summer,” Mitchell, who wasn’t involved in
the study, said by email.
Because just arranging child care during the summer can be a
struggle, other problems may seem less pressing, said Dr. Eliana
Perrin of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
“That being said, if there’s ways to find routine, decrease
calorie-dense and nutrient poor foods for children, help their
children get better sleep, help them avoid screen time, and get out
and be active – even if the weather is hot – that would be great,”
Perrin, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by email.
Ideally, parents can promote healthy habits throughout the year,
said Dr. Inyang Isong of Boston Children’s Hospital. This can
include encouraging kids to get at least an hour of exercise a day,
limiting screen time to less than two hours a day, and keeping
televisions and tablets out of kids’ bedrooms, said Isong, who
wasn’t involved in the study.
“Collectively adopting these healthful lifestyle behaviors, as a
family, can go a long way, as parents are role models for their
children,” Isong added by email. “As the saying goes, your children
will become who you are; so be who you want them to be.”
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2fbeVH6 Obesity, online November 2, 2016.
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