Abstract
During the past three decades the prevalence of childhood obesity has steadily increased in the United States. Causes of childhood obesity are complex and include numerous individual and environmental factors. The purpose of this study was to determine parent perceptions on the social-ecological barriers (community, school, and family) to physical activity and healthy eating, perceived specific to their children. Self-reported data gathered from a 50-item questionnaire and six focus groups were conducted with parents (n=43) enrolled in the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Program. Participants (16 to 67 years old) were predominately female (88.4%), Hispanic (67%), low income, and living in or near Lompoc in Santa Barbara County, CA. The social-ecological model (family, school, and community) was utilized to create focus group questions and provide recommendations as part of the Lompoc Community Health Improvement Project (2006-to-the-present). Popular community barriers for physical activity were: disconnected sidewalks, lack of safe bike routes to school, lack of recreational programming at an affordable cost, and language barriers (lack of marketing physical activity programs in Spanish). Two safety barriers involved parks; fear of injury (dilapidated equipment) and fear of gangs (violence). Common school barriers were: teachers do not leadby-example, lack of healthy food in school cafeteria, and insufficient time for children to purchase food and eat. Family barriers included: grandparents sabotaging healthy eating environments (e.g., spoiling children), insufficient nutrition knowledge (both children and parents), and economics (not being able to afford healthy food and a recreation/gym membership). DOI : COMING SOON Corresponding Author: David Hey, PhD, CHES Assistant Professor Cal Poly Kinesiology Department/STRIDE dhey@calpoly.edu 805-704-0031
Highlights
Global changes in diet and physical activity (PA) patterns are fueling an obesity epidemic as obesity is reaching pandemic proportions throughout the world [1]
Participants themselves had serious weight issues; slightly more than half (52.5%) had a Body Mass Index (BMI) that placed them in the Obese (30 – 39.9 kg/m2) or Severely Obese (≥ 40 kg/m2) BMI range
The majority of participants indicated that they alone decided what food to buy (62.8%), they alone did the food shopping (60.5%), and they cooked their family’s food (62.8%); nearly half (46.5%) of participants reported in their family they alone served as the food gate keeper and bore responsibility for all three of the above tasks
Summary
Global changes in diet and physical activity (PA) patterns are fueling an obesity epidemic as obesity is reaching pandemic proportions throughout the world [1]. In the United States, the speed of the epidemic spread is alarmingly more pronounced [3,4,5] as experts estimate roughly 17% or 12.5 million American children and adolescents are obese [6]. The relationship of sedentary lifestyle and poor eating habits to childhood obesity is of particular interest because of the longterm health effects. These health effects carry with them increased health care costs to the public through Medicare and Medicaid, as low-income and minority populations are at higher risk for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, and many other conditions [9]. Obesity and its consequences disproportionally affect ethnic minority populations [10,11] with those of Hispanic origin, Mexican-Americans, among the groups with the highest risk [12]
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