A West Virginia University dietician who is helping to identify strategies for fighting obesity among pre-school children said a national survey released Friday that named West Virginia as the third most obese state in America isn’t really news, but should serve as yet another alarm for West Virginia families to take charge of making lifestyle changes.

The eighth annual F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America’s Future 2011 report from the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation named the Mountain State as having an adult obesity rate of 32.2 percent. According to the West Virginia Chapter of the American Heart Association, that rate stood at 17.7 percent just 15 year ago.

Cindy Fitch director of the WVU Extension Service Families and Health Programs is a registered dietician with more than 30 years experience working with children and their families. She works with Extension specialists and county agents to provide evidence-based educational programs in the areas of health, nutrition, financial literacy, family relations and human development across the state of West Virginia.

She is also part of a WVU team working to develop strategies to stop the epidemic of childhood obesity with a major grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“We have been among the top states in adult obesity for some time now,” she said. “This new study just mentions obesity. But when we look at the numbers of people who are obese and overweight, you will see that fully two thirds of all West Virginia adults have a problem. Right now, we at WVU are involved in a study that addresses obesity prevention in pre-school children because we believe that is where you have to start. Once obesity is established, it is incredibly difficult to treat. It is much easier to prevent.”

She said she believes that research will show that families will be critical in efforts to halt obesity epidemic.

“I think we are going to find that the family is what is important in this fight and not just what happens in day care or in pre-school,” she said. “Families make a big difference. If you deal with the whole family and teach them to pursue healthier life styles by eating healthy and getting more active, we can make some progress.”

Fitch said too much access to high calorie low nutrient food shoulders much of the blame for the obesity epidemic in West Virginia.

“We tend to have easy access to food that is high in calories but low in nutrients and we eat more of it,” Fitch said. “And, we don’t move as much in our every day jobs as we should. We need to eat more fruits, vegetables and whole grains and get more active. We also need to look at creating these habits at an early age and that means more emphasis at the family level.”

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation report released in early July showed disturbing trends in West Virginia. According to the report:

  • Fifteen years ago, West Virginia had a combined obesity and overweight rate of 54.6 percent. Ten years ago, it was 59.7 percent. Now, the combined rate is 68.1 percent.
  • Diabetes rates have doubled in 10 states including West Virginia in the past 15 years. In 1995, West Virginia had a diabetes rate of 5.8 percent. Now the diabetes rate is 12 percent.
  • Fifteen years ago, West Virginia had a hypertension rate of 25.4 percent. Now, the rate is 34.1 percent.

Armed with a grant of nearly $5 million over five years, West Virginia experts are looking at strategies to stop those alarming statistics from rising even more.

Efforts will begin with an assessment of behavioral and environmental contributors to obesity in early childhood, followed by analysis of this extensive assessment to inform the design and implementation of a community-, school-, and home-level interventions.

The study population will be families with children in school-based and center-based Head Start/pre-kindergarten settings in Kanawha and Monongalia counties.

The group will be led by Susan Partington, associate professor of human nutrition and foods in WVU’s Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design. Partington is responsible for general oversight of the project, including research, education and Extension activities. Additionally, as director of the Graduate Dietetic Internship at WVU she will coordinate intern participation in the project.

The long-term follow-up impact of this study will be assessed with coordinated efforts of WVU’s long-running CARDIAC Project, according to Lesley Cottrell of the WVU School of Medicine. The CARDIAC Project has provided in-school health assessments to thousands of West Virginia children over the past decade and will provide a final health assessment for the children in this study.

WVU’s Regional Research Institute will offer its economic expertise. Research associate professor Donald J. Lacombe and research assistant professor Gianfranco Piras will conduct statistical analysis of the data using spatial econometric techniques, examining not only data from the obesity research but the use of the techniques themselves.

WVU Extension Service’s Families and Health unit, will focus primarily on interaction with schools in the participating counties. Emily Murphy, childhood obesity prevention specialist, and Elaine Bowen, health promotion specialist, will work with advisory committees, collect feedback from focus groups, and facilitate implementation of obesity prevention strategies, helping schools incorporate nutrition education and physical activity into early childhood education.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation report can be viewed at http://healthyamericans.org/report/88/ and the West Virginia section at http://healthyamericans.org/reports/obesity2011/release.php?stateid=WV

-WVU-

CONTACT: Cindy Fitch, WVU Extension Service
304.293.2796 or 304.680.6095; cfitch@mail.wvu.edu

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