281532
Trends and disparities in childhood obesity among 5th grade students in los angeles county, 2005-2011
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
: 9:06 a.m. - 9:24 a.m.
Tony Kuo, MD, MSHS,
Division of Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, Los Angeles, CA
Sam Whipple, MSPH,
Knowledge Managament Services, Insight Systems Corporation, Washington, DC
Lindsey Burbage, MPH,
Division of Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention, County of Los Angeles Department of Public Health, Los Angeles, CA
Paul Simon, MD, MPH,
Division of Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention, Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, Los Angeles, CA
Socio-economic status and other social determinants remain priority targets for obesity prevention interventions looking to reduce health disparities in the community. Purpose: to assess and compare trends in childhood obesity among 5th grade public school students in Los Angeles County from 2005-06 to 2010-11. Implications of results are discussed within the context of local planning of obesity prevention programs supported by such federal initiatives as the CPPW program and CTG. Fitness assessment data was analyzed on 595,160 5th grade public school students. Obesity prevalence was compared between high and low poverty schools, stratified by sex and ethnicity. School poverty status was defined as % participation in the federally-subsidized school meal programs (e.g., > 75% participation = high need/poverty). Multiple logistic regression analyses were conducted to test for significance in trends across the sampled period. The overall obesity prevalence in 2010-11 was 22.3%. The prevalence was higher among students from high poverty schools (29.0%) versus low poverty schools (9.7%). From 2005-06 to 2010-11, the overall prevalence decreased from 27.2% to 27.0% (diff. 0.8%; p<0.001). Among high poverty schools, the prevalence increased by 1.5% (p=0.009) whereas among low poverty schools, the prevalence decreased by 18.5% (p=0.001). Hispanics had the highest obesity prevalence among the high poverty schools. The prevalence was higher for whites from high poverty schools than for whites from low poverty schools (26.6% versus 8.4%). The association of school poverty status with obesity was stronger than the association of ethnicity with obesity, reflecting continual health disparities in the community.
Learning Areas:
Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice
Epidemiology
Public health or related research
Learning Objectives:
Describe childhood obesity trends in Los Angeles County from 2005-06 to 2010-11.
Assess differences in childhood obesity trends among public school students from high versus low poverty schools.
Presenting author's disclosure statement:Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am Assistant Professor in the UCLA Department of Family Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine. I also directs Research & Evaluation in the Division of Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. I have done federally funded research and have numerous peer-reviewed publications on topics including chronic disease prevention and management and nutrition and physical activity promotion.
Any relevant financial relationships? No
I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines,
and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed
in my presentation.
