Childhood obesity is a huge problem. Increasing physical activity is one way to attack this epidemic of super-sized kids. Overweight children are at greater risk for asthma, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, low self esteem and depression. Often our children are treated like prisoners in their schools and even at home when it comes to the opportunity to be “just kids” and run and jump and skip. How often do you see children in your neighborhoods riding bikes to school or around the block or along bicycle paths? For that matter, how often do you see parents riding bikes to work or around the block and along bicycle paths with their children? With such a focus on “No Child Left Behind,” how much physical education or recess is allotted for children and teens? This month, I will discuss how the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation, a private foundation dedicated to improving health at the grassroots level, has stepped up to support research and programs that seek to reverse this trend of obesity in our children.

The Robert Woods Johnson Foundation Active Living Research
In April 2008, the Annual Active Living Research Conference was held in Washington, DC. Active Living Research (ALR) is a “national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and contributes to the prevention of childhood obesity in low-income and high-risk racial/ethnic communities by supporting research to examine how environment and policies influence active living for children and their families.” The focus of this year’s conference was “Connecting Active Living Research to Policy Solutions.” Quite often, research is conducted in a vacuum without any tangible applications. However, ALR stresses the importance of getting results to planners and policymakers so that precious resources are not wasted in following “gut feeling” types of initiatives that are doomed to fail. Instead, ALR seeks to provide programmers with the evidence they need to make sound decisions in helping citizens, both young and old, to increase physical activity, have access to healthy foods, and reach and maintain healthy weights. Jim Sallis, director of ALR, noted that the goal of the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation (RWJF) is to reduce childhood obesity by 2015. Visit the ALR website at www.activelivingresearch.org to learn more about its activities. Visit the RWJF at www.rwjf.org to learn more about its various health and fitness initiatives. The RWJF welcomes applications from community-based organizations that have ideas for making a difference in the health of our children.

US Representatives Support Active Living
Representatives Zach Wamp (R-Tenn.) and Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), two congressmen, took time from their demanding schedules to speak to the attendees of the Active Living Research Conference. Wamp, chairman of the Congressional Fitness Caucus, told the out-of-towners that running is a good way to see the city. He stated, “We are over-medicating our children. The number one anti-depressant is sweat.” Therefore, we need to provide more opportunities for our children to be physically active. Wamp stated that his caucus believes in “public-private partnerships to open up spaces” and to reclaim land and rivers for increased opportunities for physical activity.

Blumenauer had bicycled to the conference. He sported a red bicycle pin on his lapel. He shared with us that Congress has a bicycle caucus whose 183 members are dedicated to riding bikes instead of cars to the Hill and around town. Blumenauer stated, “We know what works. We know that biking and walking to school works.” He added, “Design communities where people can walk to destinations.” He noted the importance of having access to grocery stores and to other healthy food markets. “What works is not having to burn a gallon of gas to buy a gallon of milk.” He added, “The journey should not be something you have to endure to get to a destination. It should be a pleasure.” He said that help is needed in three venues: in places of worship, in the educational arena and in the workplace. Blumenauer said, “Put health and physical activity in the forefront of the curriculum by making it part of No Child Left Behind.” He advocates money for rail/trail investments to make it safer for children to bike and walk to school. Blumenauer noted that policymakers need the help of researchers to make the policy work. He stated that research is needed in “shaping decisions and allocating resources” regarding the built environment; that is, the physical environment that includes buildings, roadways and parks. Congressman Blumenauer biked from the conference to return to Capitol Hill.

Take-Away Messages
One speaker, Elizabeth Dodson, MPH, stressed that it is important to stop narrowing our focus to just education and interventions that only address individual behavior changes. She added that we need to begin looking at solutions that involve interventions at the environmental and health policy levels. Broader-based interventions should complement individual-level programs. At the end of the conference, attendees listed the following solutions for connecting research to policy. These suggestions include (1) Go see the mayor. (2) Seek incremental (stepwise) changes. (3) Involve everyone in the planning. (4) Learn to play the system and play the game.

You Can Make a Difference
What I got out of this conference is the importance of not limiting our vision to individual programs and solutions when we address the problem of childhood obesity. We must demand to be heard by our national and local legislators and other leaders. We need to advocate for policies that will advance our ability to protect our children from a present and future life laden with obesity. Residents of Washington, DC, have many avenues to get decision-makers to listen to them. One’s local advisory neighborhood commission is a good place to start for getting our neighborhood-level concerns to the appropriate city officials.

Likewise, we can take our concerns directly to the city councilmembers who represent the wards where we live and work. In addition, we can find out to which committees each city councilmember belongs. For instance, At-Large Councilmember David A. Catania chairs the Committee on Health. However, childhood obesity has many causes and solutions, so other committees are important to include in the conversation. For example, committees that deal with allocation of public spaces and parks and recreational settings can contribute to making it easier for our children to have better access to places where they can be physically active while being safe. The committee that deals with public and charter schools can be approached to review projects and programs whereby physical activity will become an important part of the curriculum.

It will take a collaborative effect to win the war on childhood obesity. Get involved!

B. Michelle Harris, PhD, MPH, RD, LD, is assistant professor at the University of the District of Columbia. Her focus is public and community health through education, information, and research. Harris was awarded a Robert Woods Johnson Foundation ALR Grant in 2006 to look at the relationship between the food environment and the health of inner-city high school students. Contact her at bharris@udc.edu.

 CORRECTION: An error appeared in last month’s column under the section titled “What Is Kidney Disease?”  The last sentence should read: Join NKF/NCA, Pastor Tony Lee, and Quandra Lee for their Donate Life Program on April 27. Services are 10 a.m. and noon at Community of Hope A.M.E. Church (inside Iverson Mall), 3701 Branch Ave., Hillcrest Heights, Md. Contact Community of Hope at 240-273-9115 for further information.