Winter 2008 - Vol. 3 No. 3 - National Association of Extension 4-H ...

Volume 3, Number 3, Winter 2008Article 080303RS004Healthy Kids, Healthy Families:A Collaborative Program to Address Childhood OverweightKathleen B. Jager, Amy M. Saxe, Amy K. Smith, Marsha T. Carolan and Lorraine WeatherspoonMichigan State UniversityAbstract: Healthy Kids, Healthy Families is a program of outreach andresearch that has been developed to address treatment and preventionof the childhood obesity epidemic through a family-centered,multidisciplinary approach. The American Dietetic Associationrecommends community-based and environmental interventions as themost feasible methods to support healthful lifestyles for the greatestnumbers of children and families (Ritchie, Crawford, Hoelscher, &Sothern, 2006). Healthy Kids, Healthy Families was developed as aninnovative, collaborative program to help children and families maintainhealthy weight, through impacting the systemic medical andpsychosocial aspects of overweight in children. The program involvesin-home, family-based intervention followed by multi-family groupeducation and community outreach.Program RationaleMichigan State University (MSU) Departments of Food Science and Human Nutrition and Familyand Child Ecology colleagues have developed a family-centered program that addressesnutritional and psychosocial aspects of childhood risk for overweight (body mass index for age> 85 th percentile but less than the 95 th percentile) or overweight (body mass index for age >95% as defined by Centers for Disease Control Growth Charts, in Medicaid populations. Supportfor the Healthy Kids, Healthy Families program has been provided by the Michigan Departmentof Community Health, Medicaid, and MSU internal funding sources.Childhood obesity has become an epidemic in the United States, with serious health and socialconsequences for millions of children. Medicaid alone now serves some four million overweightchildren (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, 2002). The percent ofchildren who are overweight (defined as Body Mass Index-for-age >95 th percentile according tothe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Growth Charts) continues to increase. Over 12