Minorities at Risk
By Sylvia Bridges
Obesity is a prob
lem that many
Americans face.
Usually the con
cern is for adults.
However, Drs.
Penny Gordon-Larsen, a Dannon
Institute postdoctoral fellow in
interdisciplinary nutrition science
at the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill Carolina Population
Center, Barry M. Popkin, professor
of nutrition at the UNC-CH
schools of public health and medi
cine, and Robert G McMurray,
professor of physical education,
exercise and sports science, decid
ed to research obesity occurring in
adolescents.
According to the results,
minorities are less active than
whites and are at a greater risk ot
becoming obese. Their research
shows that adolescents, especially
females, do not exercise adequate
ly-
“Childhood and adolescent
obesity is a major public-health
problem for American youth, par
ticularly because it is increasing
rapidly, lasts into adulthood, and is
associated with illness and prema
ture death,” said Dr. Gordon-
Larsen. “Physical activity on the
other hand, has been shown to
improve bone health, reduce the
risk of cardiovascular disease and
promote psychological well-being,”
she said.
The information conducted dur
ing the study was compared with
the information found in the
National Longitudinal Study ol
Adolescent Health on more than
13,000 7th to 12th graders. The
information was obtained through
surveys that consisted of 3,135
African Americans, 2,446
Hispanics, and 976 Asians.
The results appeared in the
September issue of the “Journal of
Pediatrics:”
*The average number of hours
spent watching television weekly
for boys was 14.4 for whites, 15
for Asians, 16.6 for Hispanics and
20.8 for blacks.
*The statistics for girls watching
TV was 11.9 for whites, 12.8 for
Asians, 14.6 for Hispanics and 20
for blacks.
*The amount of time the youth
were inactive (watching TVor play
ing video games) show about the
same ratio as before.
*Obesity was most common
among black females at 39.4 per
cent and lowest among Asian
females at 11.1 percent.
Another group of doctors did
research on a similar topic. Drs.
David Freeman, William Dietz,
Sathanur Srinivasan and Gerald
Berenson wrote “The Relationship
of Overweight to Cardiovascular
Risk Factors Among Children and
Adolescents”. This research
expanded on the previous topic.
Now that we know black adoles
cents have the biggest risk of
becoming obese, we need to find
solutions to stop the problem and
learn to deal with those adoles
cents who are already obese.
Obesity is only the beginning of a
list of health problems. According
to Dr. David Freeman,
“Overweight children are also at an
increased risk for various chronic
diseases in later life.”
One way to control obesity is to
have regular visits to your doctor’s
office. If obesity starts to arise,
the doctor will be there to assist
you with an exercise or health pro
gram. Dr Amitai Ziv’s study stated
that, “Within the adolescent
cohorts, whites were over repre
sented and blacks and Hispanics
were underrepresented.”
Dr. Gorden-Larsen said, “As we
expected, this work confirms that
physical activity is very low for
American youth,” said Gorden-
Larsen. Programs aimed at minor
ity adolescents are even more
important because those young
people seem to have the highest
risks. That does not mean that
non-minority kids are highly
active. Overall, U.S. adolescents
spend very little time being physi
cally active and spend a substantial
amount of time in inactive pur
suits, such as watching TV.”
However, all three studies show
that black adolescents are less
active than their white counter
parts, which increases their
chances of being overweight.
Black Ink