Author: Joanna Szymonik

Nutritional concerns are rising faster than ever before. With the increase of processed and packaged foods, Americans are, on average, consuming over 75% of their daily sodium intake from these foods alone. This is resulting in an excess of sodium consumption across the entire American population. Excess sodium consumption can become concerning as it is linked to increased blood pressure. High blood pressure can, in turn, cause stroke and other heart diseases. Sodium reduction is necessary and needs to be addressed by the food service industry and policy change with revised guidelines.

The webinar consists of a variety of speakers who share their health projects with sodium reduction efforts. One of the projects the webinar focused on was the Child Nutrition Program with the National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs. This program was reauthorized though the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act in 2010. The breakfast and lunch programs were being revamped as a response to the increasing epidemic of overweight and obese children in the country. Nutrition guideline recommendations were taken from the National Academy of Medicine. In 2012-2014, fruit was offered daily and various vegetables were offered throughout the week. A year later, they replaced all grains with whole grains for both breakfast and lunch. In addition, sodium levels were targeted for reduction. Over time, sodium in products was slowly being reduced so that the children could adapt to the change in flavor. When children were challenged to make tastier meals without sodium, they got creative with various herbs and spices. Flavor can come from more than just salt; other spices can play a role in food taste, too, and this was a great way to get the kids involved in a fun activity.

These kinds of improvements in school lunch are a huge stepping stone to establish healthy eating habits for children early in life. If approximately a third to half of the child’s food source is coming from the school breakfast and/or lunch program, then a program like this has the ability to make a tremendous impact for future health. School-based interventions have the ability to influence a majority of kids to make healthier choices when they have healthier options presented to them.

In conclusion, children are a vulnerable population. Addressing and preventing childhood obesity early on will not only help their heath now, but also in the long run with heavily reduced risks of high blood pressure and heart disease.

It’s important to rethink what streets are for. Just for cars… or any other number of things?

Three intentions of streets as places include:

– Slow cars down

– Prioritize space for people

– Create “sticky” streets (encourage people to stop and hang out)

If there are about 10 things to do in a space, then that makes it a good place for a variety of age groups.

Examples from the webinar:

1. Read the paper

2. Window shop

3. Learn about upcoming events

4. Go inside

5. Walk by

6. Sit and relax

7. Read someone else’s book

8. Take a break from a bike ride

9. Pet a dog

10. Have a conversation

Ideas to slow down traffic that encourage people to hang out include:

– Protective bike lanes

– Protective crosswalks

– Intersection repair projects,

– Amazing piece of art

– Reducing crossing distance

– Farmer’s markets

– Community gardens

– Art/murals

– Downtown art projects

Creating targeted questions and finding solutions are a great way to tackle issues. For example, the webinar discusses how one of the programs wanted to get more young people to visit downtown. So, someone was paid to activated a Lure (from the PokemonGo App game on phones). This is a special timed condition that a player can send out, and it is intended to benefit anyone in the vicinity for a short period of time. As a result, approximately 25 people came pouring in within minutes, all because of a game.

Another example that works with this were the free summer concerts that were being held around lunchtime. However, barely anyone attended. To address the issue, pedestrians were surveyed as to what they wanted to see in the concert area, assuming it was an environmental issue, rather than trying to fix it themselves. Surprisingly enough, after applying the suggestions that were given, people started showing up. This helped shape the future of that environment, and gave people a new idea of, “Hey, we can walk around and enjoy ourselves.”

Overall, the main goal of these projects is to create more interesting and safe street areas. With these efforts, it is important to take into account public opinion. There’s no point in making changes for the community if no one uses them. Create places where people want to be.

Research suggests that Idaho’s population has a higher aging rate than the national average. Older adults are a vulnerable population , and physical, mental, and emotional age-related changes can severely impact lifestyle and quality of life. Falls are the major cause of unintentional injury and deaths among older adults, and fall prevention is considered to be a public health priority.

While there are plenty of evidence based fall prevention programs to choose from, the team ultimately selected this one due to:

– the setting being in Idaho with rural geography

– lack of funds and infrastructure

– transportation being limited and time-consuming

– health professional shortages

The classes last 45-60 minutes and meet 2-3 times per week. Each session runs for 10 weeks, and each of the 117 sites must hold 3 sessions per year. In these classes, volunteer leaders and coaches to teach various topics, including the benefits of physical activity on fall prevention, fitness basics, and injury prevention. Participants of the program ranged from those with functional limitations to triathletes, and the program had a 85% retention rate.

Program results:

– Participants reported improved physical, mental and social health and wellness, along with increased stability, strength, energy, and confidence

– The volunteer leaders enjoyed opportunities for personal growth

– Hosting a site promoted community growth

The program is volunteer-led with a “train the trainer” model. The classes take place in a variety of areas wherever older adults gather, including churches, libraries, hospitals, . This type of learning environment is great because the volunteers are there because they want to be there. Both the participants and the volunteer leaders thoroughly enjoyed the program because of the socializing and group learning that brought them back week after week. Everyone worked on improving their balance, flexibility, and strength, but took so much more out of the program. Improving the self-efficacy of these older adults changed their lives.

Evaluation methods:

120 participants were recruited from 10 sites, coming from approximately 50% rural and 50% urban settings. The data was collected over two 10-week session with a baseline measure. Measurement methods included the use of demographic surveys, SF-36v2 (quality of life questionnaire), and the 8-foot Timed Up-and-Go (TUG).

Results of the evaluation include:

– 68% of participants reported improvements in physical function and ability

– 72% of participants reported improvements in mental health

– 85% of participants significantly increased in social functioning

– 72% of participants reported an increase in energy levels

Advantages of the program include long-term financial sustainability in a variety of community settings and safe physical activity and education opportunities for older adults in rural communities. However, limitations of the evaluation include lack of detailed medical and medication histories, no tracking of falls, and self report data.

Next steps would be to consider community partners for age-friendly parks and walkability in the community.

Charlene Burgeson, Executive Director of the Active Schools, presented a National Physical Activity Society webinar on April 17, 2017 titled, “The Active Schools Movement: Strategic Plan for 2017-2020. This initiative was formally known as the Let’s Move! Active Schools, originally led by former first lady, Michelle Obama.

The purpose behind this initiative is to provide an evidence-based argument on how important it is to offer an active school environment for children and how important it is when compared to learning other subjects in the school day. Approximately 2 in 3 kids are not reaching their daily 60 minutes of physical activity, and 1 in 5 school aged kids (6-19 years) are considered obese. In efforts to combat these numbers, policy change is required.

So, why do schools insist that cuts to these programs are necessary to increase academic performance? Time? Money? What the policy makers and decision makers do not realize is that what they are doing is counter-productive. Cutting these programs will have detrimental effects on the very thing they want to improve! Michelle Obama says that we, as a nation, should try harder and come together for the future lives of our kids.

Research consistently suggests that participating in daily physical activity has numerous benefits, especially for children. Examples of benefits include increases in brain activity, grades, and performance on standardized tests, as well as decreases in wasted class time and behavior issues. Students tested better in reading, spelling, and math, and were likely to read above their grade level. These benefits help everyone, including the students, teachers, and parents, as well as administration.

Charlene presented a variety of statistics on children who had about 20 minutes of physical activity:

• 20% more likely to earn an A in math and English
• 6% increase in standardized test scores over three years
• 13% increase in student’s physical activity level for the week after 1 PA lesson
• 21% decrease in teachers’ time managing behavior issue

The program itself relies on these strategies:

• Improve supply
  • Influence current teacher practices by helping teachers with time management and the confidence to do so
  • Give teachers the information on how to incorporate physical activity into the classroom environment by showing the benefits (ex. increased performance and time students are on task/attentive)
• Increase demand
  • Repackage and enhance evidence base
  • Show parents that their children can become well-rounded
  • Convince administration that attendance and grades will increase
  • Communicate strategically with stakeholders/policy makers

In order to accomplish future goals of the program, it requires the assistance and involvement of various partners in a collaborative effort. CDC now funds Healthy School Programs in all 50 states in efforts to reduce childhood obesity. Approximately 23,000 K-12 school are currently enrolled in the program, which includes over 12 million students, along with 43 partnering organizations. Active Schools hopes to partner with more organizations to create a more substantial impact. Limitations include financial resources and dependent assistance from partnering organizations, as well as the current assumptions that academics should be valued more than health and alternative means of improving the learning process.