Study
says obese schoolchildren have higher absentee rates than
normal-weight classmates
By JOANN LOVIGLIO
Associated Press Writer
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Obese elementary schoolchildren miss a
couple more school days on average than their normal-weight
classmates, according to a study that says being fat is a
better predictor for absenteeism than any other factor.
Researchers
said their results suggest that childhood obesity, in addition
to serious medical issues, can lead to a plethora of additional
problems down the road.
"It's
clear in all the literature that the more days of school you
miss, it really sets you up for such negative outcomes: drugs
and AIDS and (teen) pregnancy," said Andrew B. Geier,
a doctoral candidate at the University of Pennsylvania and
lead author of the study released Friday.
He said
the findings should serve as a clarion call to school officials.
"At
this early age to show that already they're missing school,
and missing school is such a major setup for big-time problems,
that's something school policy people have to know,"
Geier said.
The researchers
from Penn and Temple University looked at 1,069 fourth- to
sixth-graders for one academic year in nine Philadelphia schools,
where teachers took attendance each morning. Based on body
mass index, a standard measure of height and weight, each
child was classified as underweight, normal weight, overweight
or obese.
Of 180
school days, researchers found that on average the normal
weight students missed 10.1 days, overweight kids missed 10.9
days and obese children missed 12.2 days. For reasons that
aren't clear, underweight children had the fewest absences
_ 7.5 on average.
In decades
of research about student performance, race, socioeconomic
status, age and gender have been tagged as the top predictors
for absenteeism. The new study, in the latest issue of the
journal Obesity, concludes that weight tops them all, Geier
said.
The study
didn't explore why the children missed school. Researchers
theorize it's got less to do with medical issues _ many children
at this young age haven't yet developed major obesity-linked
maladies _ and more to do with the stigma of being fat.
"They're
missing school because they don't want to be bullied and called
names," Geier said.
Researchers
tried to make the test group as homogeneous as possible by
picking schools that were among the city's poorest, with the
assumption that education and income levels would be fairly
even.
Nationally,
obesity rates have nearly quintupled among 6- to 11-year-olds
and tripled among teens and children ages 2 to 5 since the
1970s, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Obesity can lead to diabetes, high blood pressure and cholesterol,
sleep apnea and orthopedic problems.
The study
adds to growing research into non-medical complications of
being fat, including data suggesting that obese adults miss
more workdays and go to college less frequently than people
of normal weight, Geier said.
"This
is exactly the kind of study that will get the attention of
policy makers," said Jim Bogden, healthy eating project
coordinator for the National Association of State Boards of
Education. "The correlation with absenteeism is very
powerful."
He likened
the results to studies linking academic achievement to participation
in school breakfast programs _ research that prompted lots
of schools to start offering such programs. In this case,
changes could include anything from improving nutrition education
and cafeteria offerings to getting parents to serve healthy
meals at home.
"Those
of us working in school health do all we can to publicize
this information, and it seems to be starting to sink in,"
Bogden said.
