By CHRISTINE DELL’AMORE
In a recent study, nearly all the adolescents who participated did not meet federal guidelines for healthy behaviors, researchers said Friday.
Only 2 percent of kids ages 11 to 15 met the guidelines for diet, physical activity and sedentary risk behaviors as laid out in Healthy People 2010, a national effort to combat the most preventable health threats Americans face.
The study, published in the February issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, was led by Alvaro Sanchez of the primary care research unit of Bizkaia, Basque Health Service in Bilbao, Spain.
In 2006 Sanchez and colleagues looked at data from 878 girls and boys, about 58 percent non-Hispanic white, who were recruited through their primary care settings between 2001 and 2002. The researchers observed physical activity using accelerometers — a device that measures activity — and asked families to report the kids’ television viewing time, their percent calories from fat and servings of fruits and vegetables. Parents also reported their own behaviors.
Fifty-five percent of the adolescents did not meet the physical activity guidelines of 60 recommended minutes per day of moderate to vigorous physical activity, and 30 percent watched more than two hours of TV daily. In general, boys were more active and less sedentary than girls. Nearly 80 percent of kids had multiple risk factors.
The results are similar to national data on child health behaviors. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that only 15 percent of adolescents ages 12 to 19 meet the recommendations for total fat intake — 30 percent of calories from fat — and fewer than 22 percent of high school students consume the recommended five or more servings per day of fruits and vegetables.
Little is known about the relationship of these behaviors and how best to correct them, however, which motivated Sanchez and colleagues to tackle the topic.
The study was not a true experiment, and so the data is not yet strong enough to make solid conclusions. Likewise, the study may have been limited by selection bias — for instance, parents who wanted to improve their child’s health may have agreed to participate in the research.
Most surprising to study author James Sallis, a psychology professor at San Diego State University, was that physical activity and diet were not related to each other in the study. Kids who were more active did not necessarily eat healthier diets, and vice versa.
It just shows to me that there’s no easy answer to changing these behaviors — no shortcut, said Sallis.
Indeed, study author Gregory Norman, an assistant professor of family and preventive medicine at the University of California-San Diego, said it is still an open question about what interventions are best to tackle health problems.
For instance, public health experts are not sure whether to combat both diet and activity together, or work on one at a time. This study also suggested kids are emulating their parents’ unhealthy behaviors, another setback, Norman said.
A viable solution, Norman said, is to power health messages through modern technology, particularly to kids. The PACE Project, a CDC-funded research initiative, develops tools for primary care physicians to motivate patients to become physically active. Both Sallis and Norman, as well as study authors Karen Calfas and Dr. Kevin Patrick, are contributors to the project.
For example, some doctors are starting to prescribe visiting Web sites that advocate healthy choices. Other ideas include making health messages accessible to kids on their cell phones.
Sallis also agrees technology is a strong conduit for promoting health.
We need to reach kids where they are in their lives, and technology in that point of view is inescapable, Sallis said.
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