AUSTIN, Texas, Oct 23, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Prevention programs may be the
best way to fight child obesity, U.S. researchers said.
A study examining regional changes in child obesity between 2000-2005, published
in the journal Obesity, found a local obesity prevention program combining state
and local community nutrition and exercise programs with media attention, and an
evidence-based school health approach in the El Paso, Texas, region, was most
effective statewide in decreasing childhood obesity.
The El Paso fourth graders had a decrease of 13 percent in obesity prevalence.
"Data from the El Paso region show us that obesity prevention efforts, when
implemented on a broad scale, can be successful," study leader Deanna Hoelscher
of the Michael & Susan Dell Center for Healthy Living, Austin, Texas, said in a
statement.
Hoelscher said the results of the study -- called SPAN, or Schools Physical
Activity and Nutrition -- illustrated the importance of measuring prevalence at
the local level rather than relying on national or state estimates to monitor
trends.
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