North Platte among seven communities to participate in program designed to reduce childhood obesity | Local
North Platte is among seven Nebraska communities chosen to participate in a Building Healthy Families program designed to reduce childhood obesity.
The University of Nebraska Medical Center and the University of Nebraska at Kearney received a $2.5 million grant from the Centers for Disease Control’s Childhood Obesity Research Demonstration Project to adapt, test, and package their Building Healthy Families program, designed to reduce childhood obesity, with a focus on rural communities.
North Platte was chosen to offer the program partially because of the community’s previous work with FitKids, part of the Platte River Fitness Series wellness initiative.
Building Healthy Families is a pediatric weight management program for children ages 6-12 and their families. It is an adaptation of Leonard Epstein’s research and has been implemented in Kearney, where it achieved clinically and statistically significant reductions in children’s BMI, according to a press release. It uses the Epstein Traffic Light Eating Plan, considered the most studied and successful pediatric weight management intervention program to date.
The program consists of nutrition education, lifestyle modification and physical activity lessons. There are 12 weekly sessions followed by relapse prevention sessions throughout the first year. The program is designed to include the entire family with steps that families can take to improve the health and quality of life of each participating family.
