Kids at Risk: Assessing Diet and Exercise Behaviors in Adolescents

San Diego, January 26, 2007 – Do adolescents get enough exercise and eat the right foods? Is there too much fat in their diets? In a study published in the February 2007 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, researchers analyzed the behavior of almost 900 11-to-15 year-olds and found that nearly 80% had multiple physical activity and dietary risk behaviors, almost half had at least three risk behaviors, and only 2% met all four of the health guidelines in the study.

Using both physical measurements and surveying techniques, four behaviors were assessed: physical activity, television viewing time, percent calories from fat, and daily servings of fruits and vegetables. In addition, parental health behaviors were sampled.

Fifty-five percent of adolescents did not meet the physical activity guideline, although significantly more boys (59%) than girls (33.6%) did meet the standard. About 30% exceeded 2 hours of television viewing time and the majority of the sample did not meet dietary standards. Only 32% and 11.9% of the sample met the recommendations for fat consumption and servings of fruits and vegetables, respectively.

There was some evidence that parents’ health behaviors were associated with adolescents’ health behaviors. For the girls, two parent health behaviors—never smoking and meeting fruit and vegetable guidelines—were associated with fewer adolescent risk behaviors. Parents’ number of risk behaviors was weakly but positively associated with a higher number of risk behaviors in boys.

Writing in the article, Alvaro Sanchez, PhD, states, “These findings contribute to the body of evidence that most adolescents fail to meet multiple diet and physical activity guidelines and continue to be in need of interventions that target multiple behaviors. Although health promotion programs frequently target multiple behaviors, little is known about the best approaches to stimulating multiple behavior change…Further research is needed to investigate the feasibility and effectiveness of different strategies for promoting multiple behavior change in adolescence.”

The article is “Patterns and Correlates of Physical Activity and Nutrition Behaviors in Adolescents” by Alvaro Sanchez, PhD (Basque Health Department Fellow at University of California, San Diego), Gregory J. Norman, PhD (University of California, San Diego), James F. Sallis, PhD (San Diego State University), Karen J. Calfas, PhD (San Diego State University), John Cella, MD (Kaiser Permanente Medical Group, San Diego) and Kevin Patrick, MD, MS (University of California, San Diego). It appears in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Volume 32, Issue 2 (February 2007) published by Elsevier.

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Full text of the article is available upon request; contact eajpm@ucsd.edu to obtain copies. To request an interview with the lead author please contact alvarospv@ap.osakidetza.net.

About the American Journal of Preventive Medicine
The American Journal of Preventive Medicine is the official journal of The American College of Preventive Medicine and the Association for Prevention Teaching and Research. It publishes articles in the areas of prevention research, teaching, practice and policy. Original research is published on interventions aimed at the prevention of chronic and acute disease and the promotion of individual and community health. The journal features papers that address the primary and secondary prevention of important clinical, behavioral and public health issues such as injury and violence, infectious disease, women’s health, smoking, sedentary behaviors and physical activity, nutrition, diabetes, obesity, and alcohol and drug abuse. Papers also address educational initiatives aimed at improving the ability of health professionals to provide effective clinical prevention and public health services. The journal also publishes official policy statements from the two co-sponsoring organizations, health services research pertinent to prevention and public health, review articles, media reviews, and editorials.

The American Journal of Preventive Medicine is ranked 14th out of 99 Public, Environmental & Occupational Health titles and 16th out of 105 General and Internal Medicine titles according to the Thomson Scientific Institute for Scientific Information’s 2005 Journal Citation Reports.

About Elsevier
Elsevier is a world-leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and services. Working in partnership with the global science and health communities, Elsevier’s 7,000 employees in over 70 offices worldwide publish more than 2,000 journals and 1,900 new books per year, in addition to offering a suite of innovative electronic products, such as ScienceDirect, MD Consult, Scopus, bibliographic databases, and online reference works.

Elsevier is a global business headquartered in Amsterdam, The Netherlands and has offices worldwide. Elsevier is part of Reed Elsevier Group plc, a world-leading publisher and information provider. Operating in the science and medical, legal, education and business-to-business sectors, Reed Elsevier provides high-quality and flexible information solutions to users, with increasing emphasis on the Internet as a means of delivery. Reed Elsevier’s ticker symbols are REN (Euronext Amsterdam), REL (London Stock Exchange), RUK and ENL (New York Stock Exchange).

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