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Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Obese Children Miss More School
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A joint research study by Temple and Penn University draws a link indicating that heavier and obese children miss more school in a given year than those children falling within the normal weight range as determined by the Body Mass Index. Prior studies implicated race, socioeconomic status, age and gender as markers for absenteeism. But, this new study places weight at the top of the list of reasons for missing school. This most recent study which focuses on fourth to sixth graders does not conclude why overweight children are missing more school; however, the study does theorize that reasons are less medically based and more emotional or psychologically based. Lead author of the study, Andrew Geier says, “They’re missing school because they don’t want to be bullied and called names.” The medical evidence is clear, obesity can be linked to diabetes, high blood pressure and cholesterol to name a few, but this new study falls in line with previously published data focused on non-medical complications with obesity. Previous data shows that overweight college students have lower attendance and overweight adults miss more work. Perhaps more evidence that parents need to break the unhealthy eating habits early on to help counter alarming obesity rates and encourage a healthy step in society.
Jerri, DTR
Nutrition Specialist
"You never know what you can do, unless you try"
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