Study: Schools Can Help Fight Obesity

Nutritional education, coupled with food changes in schools, can help fight rising obesity rates, Temple University researchers have found.

When the researchers compared fourth-, fifth-, and sixth graders in five schools that had food changes—such as replacing soda with fruit juice, banning candy, or scaling back snacks—versus those in five “control” schools with no intervention, they found that after two years, 14.9 percent of the students in the nonintervention schools had become overweight, versus 7.5 percent in the “change” schools.

Prior to the study, the kids had been of healthy weight (defined as inclusion in the fifth through the 85th percentiles).

“It was a very impressive result for a simple intervention,” says Gary Foster, director of Temple University’s Center for Obesity Research and Education, which conducted the study, involving 1,349 students in urban schools in Philadelphia.

“Just simple policy changes and nutritional education and types of foods and drinks can make a lot of difference.”

At the study's start, about 40 percent of the students in the 10 schools were overweight or obese. Five of the schools made changes supervised by a local nonprofit group called Food Trust. Those changes included replacement of sodas in vending machines and cafeterias with juice, low-fat milk, and water. Snacks were screened for fat, salt, and sugar content. Students were further encouraged to eat healthy snacks through rewards of raffle tickets that could win them bicycles, jump ropes, and other prizes.

Foster says that while the effectiveness of the intervention was good news, the 7.5 percent of the kids who become overweight in the change schools was too many; and the 14.9 percent who became overweight in the control schools was reason for concern.

“If we do nothing, [significant weight gain] is a natural progression,” says Foster, a professor of public health at Temple. To combat that occurrence, schools need to look at not only food changes, but also increase in the amount of physical education and communication with local stores that are likely contributing to junk food consumption.

The study, "A Policy-Based School Intervention to Prevent Overweight and Obesity," was published in the April issue of Pediatrics.