OPT for Kids Team Invited to Present Program on Capitol Hill
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jan. 28, 2004
Kathleen McPartland
530-898-4260
OPT for Kids Team Invited to Present Program on Capitol Hill
The Overweight Prevention and Treatment (OPT) for Kids program has received an award of $1,500 to support participation in the Sumner Symposium III. Project director Cindy Wolff, Nutrition Sciences, and student interns Kelley Marty, Melinda Garcia, and Fany Gomez will represent the OPT team.
The California State University, Chico team will travel to Washington D.C. in March to present their work to symposium participants and members of Congress. Teams from 10 other institutions will join them for the two-day symposium.
The Sumner Symposium is part of the Program for Health and Higher Education, a national program that encourages “engaging student power” in the pursuit of solutions to pressing campus and community health issues. The symposium’s goal is to improve student health and learning by integrating study of serious health problems, such as HIV/AIDS and diabetes, into the college curriculum.
OPT focuses on the obesity and diabetes epidemic by providing a program for overweight children and their parents to assist them in improving nutrition and activity lifestyle patterns. CSU, Chico students are actively engaged in the development of each component of the OPT for Fit Kids program.
The program components include community needs assessments, family-based nutrition education and weight-management classes, the development of OPT preschool curriculum materials and a social marketing campaign to promote a lifestyle of healthy eating and physical activity.
Currently, students are screening 1,500 children in area schools for indicators for future diabetes risk: overweight and acanthosis nigricans (a darkening of the skin indicative of type 2 diabetes risk). They have determined that approximately 50 percent of children in local low-income schools are overweight and approximately 12 percent show signs of acanthosis nigricans.
Through their screening of 420 CSU, Chico students, the interns also determined that 54 percent were overweight and 22 percent had elevated blood cholesterol. The students presented their results at the California Dietetic Association Annual meeting in 2003.
In the year following presenting their work and findings at the Sumner Symposium, the team will organize an on-campus symposium. The teams will recruit students engaged in campus and community activities and host a forum in which they publicize their work to the community.
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