Kinesiology Professor and A-Team Collaborate in Preschool Body Mass Index Study

If childhood obesity is a problem, at what age does it start? Kinesiology faculty member and STRIDE researcher Kris Jankovitz — in collaboration with the San Luis Obispo County Public Health Department, Community Action Partnership of San Luis Obispo (CAPSLO), and STRIDE’s Assessment Team (A-Team) — seeks to answer this question by examining the body mass index (BMI) of preschool children in San Luis Obispo County on a routine basis.

“Our goal is to identify the earliest possible time for intervention,” Jankovitz said. “Existing research says that children who are overweight or obese in their preschool years are more likely to be overweight or obese in their school-age years.”

This preschool BMI study was initially undertaken by the Pubic Health Department in 2006 with the assistance of interns from Cal Poly’s Kinesiology Department. In 2009 and 2010, Jankovitz, kinesiology graduate student Kyla Tom, and the A-Team again collected data from preschool children in the county. This year, the study hopes to include a larger sample of children and will collect data on family income and language spoken at home in addition to the children’s heights, weights, ethnicities and ages.

“We are collecting data on family income because in the past we have found that Latino children were more likely to be overweight or obese, and now we would like to better understand how income might influence weight status,” Jankovitz explained.

The increased scope has been made possible largely by the A-Team’s data collection capacity. “We are still recruiting for the 2014 study. I am hoping to have 800 children participate in our study,” Jankovitz said. This is a significant increase from the 557 children who were surveyed in 2009-10.

A-Team instructor Joel Dowers said that data collection for the study will be aided by a record number of A-Team students. “Having more students allows us to collect more data and hit more sites,” Dowers said. “All of the A-Team students are involved in this research project either by going out into the field and conducting assessments or doing data entry and other work behind the scenes.”

According to Jankovitz, A-Team was originally established to allow students the opportunity to be part of research projects. “Working with the A-Team helps me include students in research so that they can gain experience and learn how research works," Jankovitz said. "They can participate in each step of the process, from the phone calls to set up appointments, to providing informed consent documents, to calibrating scales and packing equipment.”

Data collected comes from preschool children from across the county. Jankovitz explained that the data are cross-sectional and that most schools are happy to participate in the study because they are interested in the health and wellbeing of their children.

San Luis Obispo County uses the findings to set priorities for the Maternal Children and Adolescent Health division of the Public Health Department. “The latest efforts included implementation of Rethink Your Drink and Stop, Go, Whoa,” she said.

Rethink Your Drink is an educational initiative that encourages children to choose water or nutrient-dense beverages such as milk instead of sugar-sweetened beverages. Stop, Go, Whoa aims to teach children to evaluate their food choices based on nutritional value.