Work

A Pilot Walking School Bus Program to Prevent Obesity in Hispanic Elementary School Children: Role of Physician Involvement With the School Community

Year: 2010

Type: article

Abstract: Forty-three percent of Hispanic children, 6 to 11 years old, in the United States are overweight or obese.1 Minority status and poverty in urban communities have been found to contribute to childhood obesity.2,3 Given the clear role of environmental contributors to obesity, physicians are increasingly asked to go beyond their clinical practice to support school and community programs that help prevent obesity.4 The Walking School Bus (WSB), an innovative program designed to cut down on traffic congestion while providing a safe way to walk children to school, may offer clinicians a novel approach to obesity prevention.5 Walking to school is an affordable mode of transportation that may help reduce the high prevalence of childhood obesity.6 This brief report outlines principal findings from a pilot WSB program used by school-based health center physicians in collaboration with their school and community. Full details of implementation are reported elsewhere.7 The University of New Mexico School-Based Health Center (UNM SBHC) provides primary care to a predominantly Hispanic elementary school located in the zip code area with the highest percentage of families less than 185% of the federal poverty level in Albuquerque. Student obesity was voiced as a concern by parents and teachers to SBHC physicians at the elementary school. This prompted UNM SBHC to collaborate with the school and community to test the feasibility of a modified WSB program as a strategy to prevent obesity among the elementary school students.

Source: Clinical Pediatrics

DOI: 10.1177/0009922810370364