Posts tagged physical activity

Video: ‘The Greatest Action Movie Ever’

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1 month ago
by admin in

Kids get active in their communities to save the world from a sedentary-style villain in a neat new video from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Each scene in the video is designed to showcase kids getting physical activity and eating right.

For the video, CDC invited U.S. kids to audition for the video.

Some of the more than 7,000 audition videos were used to build the film. Special effects were added to turn the kids’ actions into superpowers.

Unique Obesity Prevention Program Benefits Weight, Motor Skills in Mexican-American Preschoolers

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6 months ago
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MiranosA new culturally tailored, multi-component obesity prevention program among minority preschool children can help create an environment that positively impacts weight and gross motor skill development in children at risk for obesity, according to a new study in the journal Childhood Obesity.

For the program, called Míranos!, researchers from UT San Antonio and the Institute for Health Promotion Research at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio tested whether it is possible to indoctrinate students with healthy behaviors — for life — via several positive interactions with their parents, teachers and school workers and a supportive learning environment at school and home.

Researchers tested the program among predominantly Mexican-American kids enrolled in Head Start in San Antonio, Texas.

Favorable changes occurred in weight scores, gross motor skill development, outdoor physical activity and eating healthy food among the children who participated in Míranos!.

“Míranos! is a unique example of using a systems approach to create change at multiple levels and synergize multiple components to promote changes in preschool children’s physical activity and dietary behaviors,” the researchers concluded.

Learn more here.

Infographic: The Role of Parks & Rec in Promoting Physical Activity

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7 months ago
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Parks, trails, and recreational facilities provide a wide variety of opportunities for physical activity and can help many Americans lead a more active lifestyle.

A new infographic from Active Living Research, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation national program, highlights evidence that parks and recreation areas can increase physical activity levels while also providing economic benefits to families and communities.

The infographic also shows that 81% of Hispanic communities lack access to recreational facilities.

Video: How You Spend Your Free Time Can Lower Risk for Heart Disease

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9 months ago
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Spending your free time plopped in front of the TV or computer?

New research shows you may be able to lower your chances of heart disease by using just a small amount of that free time on simple physical activity such as brisk walking, riding a bike or even gardening or housework, according to a new video from the American Heart Association (AHA). The research found that middle-aged adults who were more active in their leisure time had lower levels of internal indicators of inflammation of the arteries. People with less inflammation tend to have lower risk of heart disease.

Almost half of study participants met the AHA’s recommendations for cardiovascular health (two-and-a-half hours of moderate to vigorous physical activity a week). However, this rose to 83% later in the study as more participants reached retirement and had more leisure time.

Bilingual Infographic: Being Active in Nature Makes Kids Healthier

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9 months ago
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Check out a new bilingual infographic on children and nature from the National Environmental Education Foundation.

See it in English here.

Bilingual Fotonovela Teaches Latinas How to Reduce Their Diabetes Risk

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9 months ago
by admin in ,

The National Diabetes Education Program’s new bilingual fotonovela, Do it for them! But also for yourself (Hazlo por ellos! Pero por ti también), helps Latinas at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

The fotonovela uses role models to demonstrate how women can reduce their risk of developing type 2 diabetes through increased physical activity, healthy food choices, and weight loss.

The fotonovela tells the story of three friends, Elisa, Raquel, and Lourdes, who work at a local dry cleaners/laundry facility. All of them have children. Elisa is Mexican, married, and has two small children. Her wise and humorous mother, Doña Emma, gives her lots of advice about how to be healthy. Raquel is from Puerto Rico. She is single and raising her 13-year-old sister. Lourdes is from Guatemala. She is married, has two children and had gestational diabetes in her last pregnancy.

Read more here.

Infographic: Being Active in Nature Makes Kids Healthier

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1 year ago
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The National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF) Health & Environment Program released an infographic, Children & Nature: Being Active in Nature Makes Kids Healthier, to show the many benefits of being active in nature for children, Active Living Research reports on its blog.

Some of the facts include:

    • Children living within a 1/2 mile of a park are more likely to have higher levels of physical activity.
    • Children who spend more time outdoors are less likely to be overweight by 27-41%.
    • Children have lost 25% of playtime and 50% of unstructured outdoor activity over recent decades.

Infographic: Screen Time vs. Lean Time

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1 year ago
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The time kids spend in front of a screen for entertainment has increased by an hour and 17 minutes since 2004, research shows.

Check out this new infographic about the surprising amounts of TV, video game, computer and other entertainment screen time that children are getting, and the opportunities for physical activity that they are missing out on. The infographic, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also provides tips for healthier activities and ways parents can limit screen time in the home.

Find the infographic here.

 

For more information, visit MakingHealthEasier.org/GetMoving

Using Research to Move Policy in Highly Obese South Texas

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1 year ago
by admin in , ,

Salud America! Pilot Researcher Dr. Nelda Mier documented safety problems and a lack of sidewalks and parks in South Texas. But now her research is poised to impact policy changes that could remedy these built-environment issues.

Salud America! pilot researcher Dr. Nelda Mier documented a lack of sidewalks, street lights and parks along the poverty-stricken Texas-Mexico border—an environment that she found contributes to obesity and sedentary behavior among Latino children.

But this story doesn’t end with just research results.

To change the local environment to make it easier to engage in physical activity, Dr. Mier—armed with lessons from Salud America! on how to promote research-based policy change—brought her project research results to community leader and policy advocate Anne Williams Cass.

The research helped guide advocacy efforts of local organizations dedicated to affordable housing, including Cass’ Proyecto Azteca, which plans to communicate with Texas legislators about the need for sidewalks, street lights and garbage collection along the Mexico-Texas border.

Dr. Mier’s research also prompted changes in the design of an affordable-housing neighborhood, where Proyecto Azteca is working with planners to add trails for hiking and biking, a recreation center and outdoor exercise areas.

“These are things that we more than likely would have neglected in our planning had it not been for the research Dr. Mier shared with us,” Cass said.

This is just one example of how the 20 Salud America! pilot investigators are using their research to stimulate policy changes to reverse Latino childhood obesity. Other Salud America! researchers are using their research to change policies in communities across the country.

Read more about Dr. Mier’s and the other grantees’ achievements in policy change here.

Salud America!, which is dedicated to preventing Latino childhood obesity, is a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and is headquartered at the Institute for Health Promotion Research (IHPR) at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, the team behind SaludToday.

Exposure to Recreation Center Increases Use by Latino Families with Children

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1 year ago
by admin in , ,

Read about Dr. Barkin's Salud America! Project

Community recreation centers that develop culturally tailored programs that invite Latino families inside can increase sustained use of the center for physical activity in this population at heightened risk for childhood obesity, according to a new study in Childhood Obesity.

Living near community recreation centers (CRC) is associated with increases in adolescent and adult physical activity.

However, the efficacy of efforts to increase use among Latino parents and children is unknown.

So researchers, led by Dr. Shari Barkin, a Vanderbilt University researcher and grantee of Salud America!, compared 66 Latino parent–child pairs who had participated in a culturally tailored healthy lifestyle program at a community recreation center and completed a 12-month follow-up assessment to 62 pairs living within a 5-mile radius of the center.

About two-thirds of Latinos in the healthy lifestyle program reported more than monthly use of the center for themselves a year after programming ended, compared to one-third of those who didn’t.

Parents in the program also were four times more likely than the others to use the center with their children on a monthly basis.

Read more about the study here, or check out Dr. Barkin’s Salud America! research brief.

Dr. Barkin is one of 20 grantee researchers of Salud America! The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Research Network to Prevent Obesity Among Latino Children. The network is based at the Institute for Health Promotion Research at The UT Health Science Center.

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