A recent UCSD report revealed figures that confirm poor nutritional and exercise habits in American adolescents aged 11 to 15, and found that the majority of youth participating in the study failed to meet federal guidelines for healthy behaviors.
Of the 878 girls and boys surveyed, 80 percent fell short of benchmarks for two or more of the categories – diet, sedentary risk behaviors and physical activity – outlined by the national proposal Healthy People 2010. The effort attempts to challenge some of the most serious, but preventable, health risks that the future generation of Americans face.
The aim of the study, published in the American Journal of Family and Preventative Medicine, was to analyze the behavioral patterns of adolescents in terms of their TV-viewing time, fruit and vegetable intake and dietary fat intake, each of which was assessed using a simple survey. Physical activity was also assessed using an accelerometer, which monitored and quantified activity rates. Additionally, the study sought to examine the correlation between the unhealthy behavior of parents and that of their children by surveying parents’ eating, exercise and smoking patterns.
Overall, 55 percent of the adolescents failed to meet the recommended 60 minutes of activity a day. Boys were found to be significantly more active than girls (59 percent of boys vs. 33 percent of girls). Conversely, gender did not influence dietary habits. Boys and girls were found to consume roughly the same amount of fruits, vegetables and dietary fat. Thirty percent of children reported watching over two hours of television daily.
The findings suggest that future health interventions must be effective in targeting multiple risk factors, as 80 percent of those surveyed failed to meet more than one guideline. Furthermore, the relationship between these risk factors is not fully understood within the health community. For instance, the study showed no clear relationship between diet and exercise, a link commonly identified by other health advocates. Children who exercised frequently were no more likely to have healthier diets than those who did not.
Evidence also suggested that unhealthy habits of parents translate to similar tendencies in children, further complicating the problem.
“”It’s hard to know if these adolescents’ diet and activity patterns will get worse,”” Gregory Norman, an assistant professor of family and preventative medicine at UCSD and co-author of the study, stated in an e-mail. “”We do know that poor habits learned when young often persist into adulthood.””
James Sallis, another co-author of the study and psychology professor at San Diego State University, said that interventions that change environmental factors in addition to affecting psychological and social factors are most effective, including improved physical education instruction.
Another solution proposed, Norman stated, is to promote healthy choices through technological means, such as Web sites and in cell phone messages.
Such a method of outreach is being developed as part of the Physician Assessment and Counseling for Exercise project, an initiative funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which helps physicians communicate the importance of physical activity to their patients.
Sallis and Norman, as well as study contributors Karen Calfas and Kevin Patrick, are part of the P.A.C.E. effort.
Alvaro Sanchez of the Bizkaia, Basque Health Service’s Primary Care Research Unit in Bilbao, Spain led the 2006 study. Sanchez recruited participants through their primary care providers, a total of 45 from six clinics in San Diego County. Participants were ethnically representative of the San Diego population, with roughly 58 percent non-Latino white individuals and 42 percent from racial minority backgrounds.
“”There is clearly no ‘magic bullet’ that has been found and researchers are studying the problem at the individual, family and community levels,”” Norman stated in an e-mail.
