SPOKANE – A pair of Washington State University researchers hope to change the diet and exercise habits of seventh- and eighth-graders with a $1.3 million U.S. Department of Agriculture grant to study childhood obesity.
The three-year project by WSU faculty members Kenn Daratha and Ruth Bindler will require the cooperation of as many as 5,000 Spokane School District middle-school students and their families.
Plans are still tentative, but the project could include personal coaches who work with students to set individual health and fitness goals. School-based fitness centers might stay open in the evenings and on weekends to allow families to work out together.
About 5,000 students at six Spokane middle schools will be eligible for the project, although participation is not mandatory, Bindler said. Changes will be monitored in several ways, including blood tests. About 200 students and their families will be sought for intensive intervention.
The plan is to change the diet and exercise habits of seventh- and eighth-graders individually, at home and in school, then measure whether and why the changes worked.
“We expect this to contribute right away to solving this problem,” Daratha said.
The grant is part of $10.7 million the USDA’s Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service program is awarding to researchers to come up with practical projects to address childhood nutrition and obesity.
The study’s sponsors hope to find out why rates of overweight children in the United States have tripled since 1980 and to reverse the trend. Nearly a third of all U.S. children are overweight or at risk of becoming overweight, according to the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Reversing the trend requires a multifaceted approach that includes family, schools, the community and, most importantly, the kids themselves, said Bindler, a nurse and a researcher with WSU’s Intercollegiate College of Nursing.
Organizers hope to expand already strong ties among the university, the WSU Extension Service and the Spokane School District to conduct the project, which is expected to start next fall and continue until 2010.
Organizers expect to hold focus group meetings to determine what families and kids think might help them change their health habits, Bindler said.
The challenge will be convincing middle-school students and their families to attempt to change their dietary and exercise habits, but the researchers are hopeful it can be done.
“We’re bringing together the family, the teachers and the kids to say, ‘This is the problem. What can we do to solve the problem?’” Daratha said.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
