School Children Exercise Link To Obesity And Diabetes

A constant row of students gathered for their turn on the scale, and the nursing students recorded figures into a clipboard, calculated and compiled the data before reporting back to Hermiston School District school resource nurse Ramona Trebilcock.

The data then became part of Trebilcock’s study on youth health and obesity, an annual endeavor designed to create awareness for parents and families of how diet affects, health, as well as giving schools a way to track student health trends.

“I started two years ago to try and evaluate height and weight of students and get what’s called their BMI (body mass index),” Trebilcock said Monday. “The normal range for people is between 14 and 25. People who have a BMI under 14 are underweight, and people who are over 25 are overweight. When you get over 30, you’re looking at obesity.”

When Trebilcock began the program, she planned to look at the effectiveness of district nutrition and exercise programs. While the annual information is presented to the administrative staff for consideration of its impact on the district wellness program, it also is showing trends in specific grades and age levels.

“What I’m finding is that in kindergarten to third grade, and the first part of fourth grade, their BMIs are normal — 18, 19, somewhere in there. What happens in the fourth or fifth grade, the BMI shoots up to 25 or 26,” the nurse said. “I have no documented proof, but my belief is that kids who are in kindergarten through third grade are more active. Kids who are in fourth, fifth, sixth grade are into texting, iPods in their ears and playing video games. They don’t burn off the calories. We don’t make our kids go outside anymore and be active. We don’t make them go outside. There’s Facebook and Twitter and iPods that are more tempting than exercise.”

To make activities more appealing, Trebilcock is working to develop incentive programs where students earn frisbees, jump ropes and hula hoops as prizes. Information on students with a BMI over 25 is passed on to the school level, as is information for students with a BMI under 14, a statistic Trebilcock dubbed just as important as having a high BMI.

“We’re also looking at students who have a low BMI, under 14,” she said. “Is there some reason for that? Do they have a medical problem? Do they not have any food at home? There are some reasons why we need to look at students underweight as well, not just those who are overweight.”

Data from the study could also be used to help pinpoint other student health problems, including heart and breathing issues, as well as the increasing cases of diabetes. Thirty students have confirmed diabetes in the Hermiston School District, a 10-student increase in recent years.

“This is a one-third increase of diabetics within the school system. The youngest diabetic is a kindergartener and the oldest is in 12th grade,” she said. “We have kids in elementary school that are 200 lbs, and that can’t be very healthy. It’s hard to do any exercise at that weight.”

Although the study is performed once a year, Trebilcock said she would ideally like to measure students in the spring as well to gauge the impact of school nutrition and physical education programs compared to student activity during the summer. She also is working with developing Safe Routes to School and Farm to School programs to complement both the study and the district wellness program.

“Those are two programs that can certainly help the weight issues and the nutrition issues in our community, but a lot of it is about awareness,” she said. “I feel it’s very important that people take a look at what they’re eating and how they’re eating, and I want to create a greater awareness basically amongst families about what their kids are eating and what they’re eating in general. Fast food may be fast, but it won’t necessarily be good.”

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