NEW ORLEANS - More than 20 percent of children surveyed said they hadn't eaten a single piece of fruit in the week before responding, according to a study released Monday that painted a dim picture of the health of Louisiana's young people.
That was only one of findings that doctors say is a cause for alarm in a report card that gave the state an overall grade of "D."
The announcement was came from researcher Dr. Peter?Katzmarzyk?of the?LSU?Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge.
"It's pretty shocking that 22 percent of children in?Louisiana reported eating no fruit in the week before the survey," said Dr.?Katzmarzyk?the Associate Executive Director for Populations Science at Pennington.
Some of the other findings in the survey include:
-Only 25 percent of high school students?get?the recommended 60 minutes of physical activity a day.
-17 percent do none at all.
-Only 4 percent eat?four or more serving of fruit a day.
-In low income areas, children are less likely to play organized sports.
-38 percent of the neighborhoods have no sidewalks or paths.
-36 percent of our youth are overweight or obese.
"Those with lower socioeconomic status have higher obesity rates and this has been a trend with the report card," added Dr. Katzmarzyk. ?
When it comes to the deadly addiction of smoking,?the study shows that even our 6th graders do it.
"Current data indicate that 18% of?Louisiana's kids are currently smoking, 18 percent, and this increases from about 3 percent in grade 6 to almost 25 percent in grade 12," said Dr.?Katzmarzyk.?
But probably one of the most alarming behaviors to doctors, and the reason our children have become couch potatoes, is that this state has the highest number of children watching more than the recommend?two hours of?TV a day in the?U.S. and the highest number of children with?TV's in their bedrooms in the?U.S.
"Having a television in?a child's bedroom has been associated with poorer health outcomes and a higher prevalence of obesity and we see actually 70 percent of kids in?Louisiana have televisions in their bedroom and that's well above the national average. So that is a concern. We need to move the televisions out of the bedroom," explained Dr. Katzmarzyk.??
The state Department of Health and Hospitals said all families can learn from this evidence and be motivated by feeling good and saving money.
"I?think people are getting tired of mandates so why don't we take a different approach. How do we get people convinced,?Louisiana residents to want to do the right thing, to want to live a healthy lifestyle, to improve their quality of life and decrease their health care costs," said?Registered Dietician Pam Romero of?DHH's Louisiana Council on Obesity Prevention and Management.
For the full report card go to? ?or for more on a public conference on childhood obesity for health care workers, educators, policy makers, and researchers on?Wednesday September 16 at Pennington in Baton Rouge go to . ?
