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SPOKANE, Wash.—Realizing that obesity is a complex and multi-faceted problem, Washington State University faculty members Ruth Bindler, RNC, Ph.D. (WSU Intercollegiate College of Nursing) and Kenn B. Daratha, Ph.D. (WSU Spokane Informatics) assembled a multi-organizational, multi-disciplinary team to address this epidemic.

The team was recently awarded a $1.33 million award from the USDA/CSREES (Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service) National Research Initiative Human Nutrition and Obesity Program titled: Comparison of Environmental Changes in the School Environment to Individual Interventions as Methods for Reducing Obesity Rates in Early Adolescence, which will be implemented in Spokane Public Schools.

The funding from this significant grant will allow the team to evaluate the impact of three levels of intervention through major activities with nearly 5,000 students at six middle schools (grades 7-8). The three levels being examined are school environment (e.g., food offerings, after-school programs, curriculum), family (e.g., parent food buying decisions and activity levels) and individual behaviors and assessment.

Examples of interventions include increasing individual child and family knowledge levels about health life choices, goal setting for youth related to their own health, improved dietary and physical activity options during school hours, and extended after-school and summer programs for children and families to sustain results.

According to Daratha, “The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports more than 18 percent of U.S. youth are overweight, and another 15 percent are considered at risk of becoming overweight. Rates of overweight children have increased 45 percent in the last decade and have increased three-fold since 1980. Further, overweight children are increasingly showing signs of adverse health effects historically associated with adulthood. Both the CDC and the World Health Organization indicate childhood obesity has reached epidemic proportions.”

The rapid increase in the incidence of obesity indicates that being overweight is not always due to genetics, but rather to environmental and behavioral factors. And, to date, most efforts to reduce childhood obesity have garnered only modest results.

Bindler and team believe all three levels of intervention are critical in understanding and preventing childhood obesity. “Multiple causes, and consequently, multiple solutions are required when looking at ways to combat childhood and adolescent obesity. Interventions must address dietary intake and patterns, physical activities, sedentary behavior, and environmental design,” said Bindler. “Children, families, schools and communities are all part of the solution. Furthermore, nurses, working with professionals from many other disciplines, are at the center of assessment to lower rates of child and adolescent obesity and to lead to improved health for youth.”

Sue Butkus, Ph.D., (WSU Extension), Tom Power, Ph.D. (WSU Human Development), John Roll, Ph.D. (Washington Institute for Mental Illness Research and Training), Bob Lutz, M.D. (WSU Adjunct and Empire Health Services Physician), Karen Cowan (Spokane Public Schools) and Doug Wordell (Spokane Public Schools) will serve as co-investigators of the team. Additional personnel serving on the project include Carolyn Johnson, Ph.D. (WSU Exercise Physiology and Metabolism) and Shirley Broughton (WSU Extension).

Grant dollars are expected in March 2007 while pre-planning for grant activities is currently underway. Interventions will begin in Spokane Public Schools fall 2007 and will continue for three full academic years. The final post-testing of study participants will occur fall 2010, and all grant activities will be completed by February 28, 2011.

About the WSU Intercollegiate College of Nursing
The College of Nursing offers baccalaureate, graduate and professional development course work to nursing students enrolled in Spokane through its four consortium partners, Eastern Washington University, Gonzaga University, Washington State University and Whitworth College. The same programs are also offered in several communities across the state including Yakima, Vancouver, Tri-Cities and Walla Walla using WSU’s Academic Media Services’ interactive video system, as well as videoconferencing, video streaming and web-based instruction.

About WSU Spokane
WSU Spokane is the urban campus of Washington State University, a land-grant research university founded in 1890. The campus features advanced studies and research in health sciences and health professions, the design disciplines, education, social and policy sciences, and science and technology. WSU is one of just 95 public and private research universities with very high research activity, according to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching classifications. In addition, “U.S. News & World Report” ranks WSU as one of the top public research universities in the nation.

Kenn Daratha and Ruth Bindler

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