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.

Initial reliability and validity of the lift-and-raise hamstring test.

The Lift-and-Raise hamstring flexibility test was developed as a field-based assessment to eliminate the effects of individual and developmental differences in arm, leg, and trunk lengths found with the commonly used Sit-and-Reach tests. This study assessed the initial reliability of the prototype instrument and its validity by comparing obtained values from a Cybex Testing and Rehabilitation System. Flexibility of the left leg was assessed on 53 college-aged participants (women, n = 28; men, n = 25) using the Lift-and-Raise test by 2 independent testers to determine initial reliability measures. The Cybex Testing and Rehabilitation System was compared with the Lift-and-Raise test when assessing the left hamstring of 39 college-aged students (women, n = 23; men, n = 16) to establish initial validity. A high intraclass correlation coefficient emerged between the 2 testers (r = 0.944) on the Lift-and-Raise instrument and between the Lift-and-Raise test and the Cybex testing protocol (r = 0.891). Based on initial results, the Lift-and-Raise test seems to be a reliable and valid test to measure hamstring flexibility.

Impact of pedometer use and self-regulation strategies on junior high school physical education students daily step counts.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to determine the impact of pedometer use and self-regulation strategies on adolescents' daily physical activity. METHODS: Junior high school students (n=113) enrolled in seventh- and eighth-grade physical education classes (52 girls, 61 boys) volunteered to participate in a 5-week study to assess daily step counts. Ten physical education classes were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 groups: (a) self-regulation, (b) open, and (c) control. RESULTS: A repeated-measures, mixed-model analysis of variance revealed a significant 3x4 (Group by Time) interaction effect, F6,290=2.64, P<.02. Follow-up analyses indicated participants in the self-regulation group took 2071 to 4141 more steps/d than the control. No other significant differences emerged among groups on step counts. CONCLUSIONS: It appears that having access to and charting daily step counts (ie, self-regulatory strategies) positively influenced young adolescents to attain a higher number of steps/d.