Ethnicity: Multi-racial/ethnic

Informing School Policies and Practices to Ensure Access to Free High-Quality Drinking Water to Reduce Children’s Consumption of Sugary Beverages

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Little empirical research has been done to support policies that increase access to free drinking water as part of comprehensive strategies to reduce consumption of sugary beverages and prevent childhood obesity. This study will examine beverage environments in 20 diverse high schools in King County, Wash., to guide the development of effective school water policies More

Assessing the Impact of Food Restrictions Under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) on Food Choices by Children and Families

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Some public health advocates and policymakers are proposing restrictions on the types of foods eligible for purchase with Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, such as sugary drinks and food products with minimal nutritional value. To date, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has rejected all such proposals due to lack of research on whether More

Children’s School-Related Food and Physical Activity Behaviors are Associated with Body Mass Index

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This paper examines the associations between the food and physical activity environment in schools and body mass index (BMI) for lower-income boys and girls when they were in the 8th grade during 2007. Analyzing secondary data from the nationally representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-1999 (ECLS-K), researchers found that a number of More

Effects of Messages from a Media Campaign to Increase Public Awareness of Childhood Obesity

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This paper examines how three video messages featured in the Strong4Life campaign affected public attitudes about: 1) the problem of obesity and its consequences; 2) who in society is responsible for addressing the problem; 3) support for obesity prevention policies; and 4) weight-based stigma. Researchers conducted a web-based survey experiment in May-June 2012 with a More

Food Prices and Body Fatness among Youths

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This paper examines the effects of food prices on clinical measures of obesity, including body mass index (BMI) and percentage body fat (PBF) measures derived from bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) and dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA), among youths ages 12 to 18. Using three waves of National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data (1999-2000, More

How Food Prices Impact Body Fat

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A sedentary lifestyle lacking physical activity, and consumption of calorie-dense foods and sugary drinks, have long been associated with obesity. But studies indicate that the inflation-adjusted cost of food, which has been falling, is also contributing to the recent epidemic of obesity. This issue brief highlights the results of a study published in Economics and More

Effects of Changes in Lunch-Time Competitive Foods, Nutrition Practices, and Nutrition Policies on Low-Income Middle-School Children’s Diets

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This article discusses the results of the School Nutrition Advances Kids (SNAK) project which examined the effectiveness of various nutrition interventions on the diets of lower-income middle school students in Michigan. Schools were randomly assigned to one of four experimental groups: 1) completed an assessment of nutrition education policies and environments using the Healthy School More

Framing the Consequences of Childhood Obesity to Increase Public Support for Obesity Prevention Policy

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This paper examines the effects of messages describing consequences of childhood obesity on Americans’ attitudes about obesity prevention policy and compares these attitudes by political ideology (conservative, moderate, and liberal). Using data from two nationally representative internet-based surveys with adult participants, researchers found that respondents considered several consequences of childhood obesity to be strong justification More

Assessing Nutrition and Physical Activity Practices and Policies of Child-Care Centers in States with the Highest Obesity Rates

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This study will evaluate nutrition and physical activity practices and policies of licensed child-care centers that enroll 3- to 5-year-old children in the three Southern states with the highest childhood obesity rates—Mississippi, Georgia, and Kentucky—and assess differences in practices and policies by geographic region (e.g., rural/urban), center characteristics (e.g., Child and Adult Care Food Program/non-Child More