I'm a little slow on the uptake on this news, but RWJF is reporting a decrease in the childhood obesity rates in some cities across the nation.  Cities such as Los Angeles, Philadelphia, New York City, El Paso, and Anchorage are reporting decreasing obesity rates in their children.  So, what are they doing right?

These cities are measuring BMI across their school aged population, by using heights and weights.  These trends are specifically for schools that are taking heights and weights measurements, which is not a standard practice across the nation.  It is hard to know if this trend could be more widespread if more schools were measuring this type of data.  

Besides the fact that these cities are actually measuring obesity in children, many are focusing on broader policy, systems and environmental changes targeted at reducing obesity rates.  From eliminating sugar sweetened beverages in school vending machines, removing deep fat fryers from cafeteria kitchens, and improving healthy offerings in corner stores, children are beginning to see healthy foods everywhere they go.  

Poor children and minorities are disproportionately affected by obesity and much of the decline in obesity has benefitted higher income and white populations.   But in Philadelphia, they have seen the largest decline in obesity among minorities, specifically an 8 percent decline among black boys and 7 percent among Hispanic girls compared to 0.8 percent for white girls and 6.8 percent for white boys.   

I'm looking forward to detailed case studies on what Philadelphia has done.  For those of you that work in the area of childhood obesity, I have a sneaking suspicion that a lot of what is happening in Philadelphia is going on in MN, we may just have to wait a bit longer to access measurable, data-driven results.  

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/11/health/childhood-obesity-drops-in-new-york-and-philadelphia.html?pagewanted=1&ref=health&_r=0