Today's Date: March 28, 2024
Avnos and Deep Sky Forge Path to Gigaton-Scale Carbon Removal in Canada   •   Netcracker Continues Its Support of the U.S. Paralympic Ski and Snowboard Team at Adaptive Spirit 2024   •   Nutrex-Hawaii Introduces Its #1 Selling BioAstin® Hawaiian Astaxanthin® in a Retail-Ready, Sugar-Free, Vegan Gummy Forma   •   The Home Depot Announces Agreement to Acquire SRS Distribution, a Leading Specialty Trade Distributor Across Multiple Verticals;   •   The Lenserf Group Launches Emotional Intelligence Academy for HBCU Interns   •   3EO Health Announces the First Point of Care Molecular Test Under $15   •   Parental avoidance of toxic exposures could help prevent autism, ADHD in children, new study shows   •   Midea Group Breaks Revenue and Profit Records with RMB 373.7 Billion in 2023   •   Government of Canada signs two bilateral agreements with Quebec to support initiatives to improve health care   •   Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and Palantir Partner to Create Safe Conditions for In-Person Education in Schools   •   Latest U.S. Soybean Field Trials by Texas Crop Science Deliver Average Yield Increase of More Than 20%   •   Apogee Enterprises Schedules Fourth Quarter Fiscal Year 2024 Earnings Release and Conference Call   •   PRIVATE SCHOOL VILLAGE (PSV) AWARDS INAUGURAL ELEMENTARY-SCHOOL SCHOLARSHIPS   •   Clean Energy Appoints Patrick J. Ford to Board of Directors   •   Stora Enso publishes Green and Sustainability-Linked Financing Report 2023   •   Cardinal Tobin Blesses New Open-Air Mausoleum of the Holy Spirit Site   •   EIG’s MidOcean Energy Completes Acquisition of Tokyo Gas’ Interests in Portfolio of Australian Integrated LNG Projec   •   Chris Diehl Returns to 101 Mobility as Director of National Accounts   •   Lenzing strives to drive beneficial transformation across the value chain   •   Guo Guangchang: "Focus on building sustainable, predictable and enterprise with stable profit growth "
Bookmark and Share

Mentoring Prevents Obesity In Inner-City Blacks

 BALTIMORE, MD - A program pairing healthy young adults with urban middle school students helped the adolescents adopt healthy habits, active lifestyles and a healthy weight, according to a new study from the University of Maryland School of Medicine. The study, published in the journal Pediatrics, found that linking African American, inner city adolescents in Baltimore with one-on-one mentorship from college students prevented the schoolchildren from becoming overweight for at least two years after the mentorship experience. Researchers found the adolescents ate fewer snacks and desserts, and engaged in active play more often. The rate of overweight/obesity in the group declined five percent. 

The home- and community-based intervention - a program called Challenge! - shows promise as a way to have a major impact on children's lives, according to the study's lead author, Maureen M. Black, Ph.D., John A. Scholl, M.D., and Mary Louise Scholl, M.D., Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. The rate of childhood 
obesityin America has tripled in the past three decades, particularly among low income, urban children. Parents alone are often unable to prevent excessive weight gain among their children. More than three-quarters of the caregivers of children in the Challenge! study were overweight or obese themselves. 

"Obesity puts children at risk for health problems now, during their adolescence, and certainly as they get older," says Dr. Black. "It places nearly every system in a child's body at risk - the cardiovascular system, the musculoskeletal system, the endocrine system, and can also compromise a child's
mental health. Ultimately, obesity affects longevity. Childhood obesity is a defining public health issue of our time." 

Various existing obesity outreach programs target children in large groups, such as at school or at church, but Dr. Black and her colleagues noted that home-based interventions are lacking. With the help of an advisory board made up of urban youths in Baltimore, the researchers developed the Challenge! program as a way to bring "personal trainers" directly to children's homes to demonstrate for them how to live in a healthy way. 

"We tried to normalize being healthy and taking care of yourself," says Dr. Black. The program even included a rap developed by a West Baltimore performer specifically for Challenge! "We wanted to make it normal and cool to be healthy and fit," Dr. Black adds. 

The study enrolled 235 primarily African American children ages 11 through 16, all from low income, urban West Baltimore communities surrounding the University of Maryland School of Medicine. About 38 percent of the children were already overweight. Half of the kids were randomly assigned to the mentorship program Dr. Black and her colleagues designed, with a control group assigned to no intervention. For mentors, researchers recruited healthy African American students or recent African American graduates from Baltimore area colleges to visit one-on-one with the children for 12 sessions. 



Back to top
| Back to home page
Video

White House Live Stream
LIVE VIDEO EVERY SATURDAY
alsharpton Rev. Al Sharpton
9 to 11 am EST
jjackson Rev. Jesse Jackson
10 to noon CST


Video

LIVE BROADCASTS
Sounds Make the News ®
WAOK-Urban
Atlanta - WAOK-Urban
KPFA-Progressive
Berkley / San Francisco - KPFA-Progressive
WVON-Urban
Chicago - WVON-Urban
KJLH - Urban
Los Angeles - KJLH - Urban
WKDM-Mandarin Chinese
New York - WKDM-Mandarin Chinese
WADO-Spanish
New York - WADO-Spanish
WBAI - Progressive
New York - WBAI - Progressive
WOL-Urban
Washington - WOL-Urban

Listen to United Natiosns News