For immediate useNov. 3, 1997 -- No. 816

Study shows reason 26 percent of N.C. children are overweight

By DAVID WILLIAMSON
UNC-CH News Services

CHAPEL HILL -- More than a quarter of North Carolina third- and fourth-graders are overweight, according to a new study, and researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill believe they have figured out a major reason why.

As a group, the children exercise far too little.

“We found that the number one leisure time activity for the boys we studied was playing video games, and the number one activity for girls was doing homework,” said Dr. Joanne Harrell, professor of nursing and director of the statewide Cardiovascular Health in Children study.

“Among boys, we found that whites reported less vigorous activities than blacks,” Harrell said. “Girls got even less exercise, and black girls got less than white ones.”

A report on the study appears in the current issue of the journal Nursing Research. Besides Harrell, authors include Chyrise B. Bradley, research assistant professor of nursing; and Dr. Robert G. McMurray, professor of physical education, exercise and sport science, both at UNC-CH.

The researchers surveyed 2,200 N.C. school children -- mostly 8- and 9-year-olds -- about what they did when not in school. Subjects were evenly divided between boys and girls, and they came from 18 elementary schools in both urban and rural areas from the mountains to the coast.

“The American Heart Association now recognizes physical inactivity as one of the major risk factors for heart disease and strongly recommends increasing physical activity for children, as well as adults, as a first line of defense against heart disease,” Harrell wrote. “Physical inactivity has been linked to coronary heart disease in adults and to obesity, hypertension and hypercholesterolemia in both adults and children.”

While earlier studies have shown American children to be too inactive, little is known about how children really spend their non-school hours, she said. UNC-CH researchers, supported by the National Institute of Nursing Research, attempted to document those activities and determine how vigorous they were.

Watching television was among the most often reported top five pastimes for boys, and both watching television and reading were on girls' top five list. Bicycling was the only exercise the sexes had in common on the list.

Another finding was that children from wealthier families were less active than children from less wealthy families. Still another was that significantly more youngsters of normal weight reported a vigorous sport as one of their top three activities than did overweight children.

Boys were far more likely than girls to participate in various team sports and play video games, and girls were far more likely to report cleaning the house, reading and dancing.

“Parents, educators and health-care professionals need to find ways to help children, especially girls, become more physically active both in school and outside of school,” Harrell said. “Parents, school nurses and teachers could implement opportunities for girls to participate in aerobic activities they enjoy, such as bicycling, roller-skating, jumping rope and dancing. They could encourage more young girls to take an interest in team sports by sponsoring coeducational leagues for soccer, baseball or softball.”

In September, the UNC-CH team reported in the North Carolina Medical Journal that many third- and fourth-graders studied had both higher blood pressure and total cholesterol levels than doctors consider healthy and that one in 25 already had begun smoking regularly or occasionally.

North Carolina lies in the middle of the nation's heart disease and stroke belt.

Strengths of the new study include the large sample size, use of healthy school children from both rural and urban areas and inclusion of minority children representative of the state population.

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Note: For more information or to speak with the researchers, call Renee Kinzie at (919) 966-1412.

News Services Contact: David Williamson, 962-2091