Developing a Statewide Childhood Body Mass Index Surveillance Program

Background Several states have implemented childhood obesity surveillance programs supported by legislation. Representatives from Idaho wished to develop a model for childhood obesity surveillance without the support of state legislation, and subsequently report predictors of overweight and obesity in the state. Methods A coalition comprised of the Idaho State Department of Education and 4 universities identified a randomized cluster sample of schools. After obtaining school administrator consent, measurement teams traveled to each school to measure height and weight of students. Sex and race/ethnicity data were also collected. Results The collaboration between the universities resulted in a sample of 6735 students from 48 schools and 36 communities. Overall, 29.2% of the youth in the sample were classified as overweight or obese, ranging from 24.0% for grade 1 to 33.8% for grade 5. The prevalence of overweight and obesity across schools was highly variable (31.2 ± 7.58%). Hierarchical logistic regression indicated that sex, age, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and region were all significant predictors of overweight and obesity, whereas school was not. Conclusions This coalition enabled the state of Idaho to successfully estimate the prevalence of overweight and obesity on a representative sample of children from all regions of the state, and subsequently identify populations at greatest risk

Attentional Focus and Feedback Frequency Among First Graders in Physical Education

Purpose: External attentional focused instructions and feedback have shown to enhance motor performance among adults, adolescents, and older children. This study examined type and frequency of instructions and feedback among younger children performing an overhand throw. Method: First graders (N = 65) were provided external or internal focused instructions at high- or low-frequency rates resulting in four experimental groups (External-High, External-Low, Internal-High, and Internal-Low). Results: Internal focused groups performed significantly better than external focused groups during retention–transfer, and children who received feedback that is more frequent performed better. External-Low performed better than External-High at the end of acquisition and retention–transfer, whereas Internal-High performed better than Internal-Low throughout acquisition. Conclusion: Data support previous research indicating children need more feedback when learning a motor skill but did not support prior studies regarding attentional focus. More work is needed to understand how and why young children respond differently to attentional focused instructions and feedback