OBESITY IN MISSISSIPPI

A project funded by the POWER initiativeSURVEY OFLOCAL & STATE-LEVELPOLICY MAKERSSocial Science Research CenterMississippi State UniversityPARENT SURVEYSocial Science Research CenterMississippi State UniversityMISSISSIPPISCHOOL NUTRITIONENVIRONMENTEVALUATION DATASYSTEM (MS-NEEDS)Department of Familyand Consumer SciencesUniversity of MississippiCHILD AND YOUTHPREVALENCE OFOBESITY SURVEY(CAYPOS)College of HealthThe University of SouthernMississippiThe goal of this survey is toassess state and local policymakers’ knowledge andopinions of the MississippiHealthy Students legislationand their support for it.The study considers stateand local policy makersto include state legislators,members of the State Boardof Health and State Boardof Education, local schoolboard members, schooldistrict superintendents,and local health officials.Assessing the attitudesof local policy makers iscritical in ensuring thatthe intent of state-levelchildhood overweightand obesity school healthpolicies is understood andimplemented in ways thatmaximize the potential ofprimary prevention.The annual ParentSurvey evaluates parentalattitudes, changes infamily environments, andchanges in children’s healthbehaviors throughoutthe evaluation period.The purpose is to betterunderstand how parents feelabout school health policies,how they influence thosepolicies, and to what extentfamily knowledge, attitudes,practices, and constraintsinfluence children’s healthand health behaviors.Documenting nutrition andphysical activity patterns inthe home environment isimportant in determiningthe degree to which healthstatus changes, or a lackthereof, are due to nutritionand physical activitypatterns or to alterations inthe home environment.To obtain an independentassessment of statewideprogress implementingschool nutrition policies,researchers at theUniversity of Mississippiconduct onsite evaluationsof school nutritionenvironments at arepresentative sample ofschools statewide. Theirsurvey tool assessesthe level of nutritionpolicy implementationat each school, providesa comparison betweenschools with differentdemographics, and,through repeatedmeasurement, showsnutrition-relatedenvironmental changesover time.Conducted Conducted every every two two years,years, researchers researchers use height use andheight weight and measures weight gathered measuresgathered through the through Child the and Childand Youth Youth Prevalence Prevalence of Obesityof Survey Overweight to estimate Survey the toestimate prevalence the of prevalence overweightof and overweight obesity among and obesity childrenamong in Mississippi. children The in resultsMississippi. of the 2007 The CAYPOS resultsof provided the 2007 the CAYPOS first signs thatprovided childhood the obesity first signs rates that inchildhood Mississippi obesity may be rates reachingMississippi a plateau. Although may be reaching nota statistically plateau. Although significant, not thestatistically survey showed significant, drops in theobesity survey rates showed in middle drops inschool obesity andrates high school inmiddle students.school andhigh schoolstudents.13