Fighting Fat
Lessons from Harvard help Boston students stay thinner.
By now, it's widely understood that too many children in America are overweight. Schools are fighting back, but Bryn Austin, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Children's Hospital in Boston, worries that programs designed to battle childhood obesity - body-mass index "report cards" issued by schools, for example - could have a serious boomerang effect, exacerbating eating disorders in the teenage population.
Turns out that with the right kind of curriculum, it doesn't have to be an either-or situation. Planet Health, an obesity-prevention curriculum created in the 1990s by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health and currently used by all of Boston's middle schools and about 75 suburban middle schools, has had a welcome effect: In schools with the Planet Health curriculum, boys and girls watched less television, and fewer girls were obese or reported eating disorders, than in other schools.
"This potentially could have a huge impact," says Austin, who is hopeful more schools around the country will adopt the curriculum as it becomes more widely known. Planet Health doesn't use scare tactics, which could lead to kids feeling stigmatized or being bullied, which could lead them to seek an unhealthy fix like purging, fasting, diet pills, or laxatives, she says. Instead, the program gets teachers to interweave messages about exercising more, watching less television, and eating healthier foods throughout the regular curriculum, from social studies to science to math.
"Planet Health is a health-promotion program," Austin says, "and it very much focuses on the positive."
There is one sobering finding, however. Planet Health did not reduce un- healthy weight-control habits among girls who said they had dieted in the past month. For them, Austin speculates, some other kind of program might be need- ed, perhaps as early as elementary school, to counteract the influences of the media, peers, and family members who might make them hyper-conscious about weight. "Together, there's a real negative synergy that I think leads to the situation we have now, where there are so many people who are willing to do dangerous methods to control their weight," Austin says.
To learn more about Planet Health, visit www.hsph.harvard.edu/prc. Parents who want to bring the curriculum to their children's schools should speak with their parent-teacher organization, school principal, or district health coordinator.
At the Wheel
Teens in Massachusetts and New Hampshire may be among the safest behind the wheel, according to a study released this summer. For every 100,000 teenage drivers in the two states, about 36 traffic deaths involved a teenager. North Carolina had almost triple the rate. The study's authors credited restrictions on teenage drivers. Massachusetts created a junior operator's license in 1998 that restricts driving at night and with young passengers. Of course, Massachusetts teens may just take after their parents, who have the lowest motor-vehicle fatality rate in the country.
On the Field
Teenage female athletes surpass boys in a worrisome category: knee injuries. They tear their anterior cruciate ligaments about five times more often than boys, according to Dr. Martha Murray, an orthopedic surgeon at Children's Hospital in Boston. The surgical fix doesn't fully restore knee function, and arthritis can set in by age 30, Murray says. "They really need a better answer," she says. She is developing a technique to fuse the ACL's torn ends with a gel that contains platelets and a growth factor gene. She and Dr. Lyle Micheli, the head of sports medicine at Children's, are also promoting a low-tech solution: They urge coaches to adopt preseason training programs. One hour a day, three days a week can reduce girls' injuries to the same level as boys, they say.
Can You Hear Me Now?
iPods and other digital music devices can damage the inner ear. Users can play music loudly without the hiss of old-fashioned players, and the devices hold hundreds of songs, meaning there's no interruption to flip a tape or change a disc. "I think we're potentially on the front end of a hearing-loss epidemic," says Dr. Roland Eavey, a pediatric ear, nose, and throat specialist at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. Manufacturers give no specific instructions on what level - and for how long - is safe. So Brian Fligor, director of diagnostic audiology at Children's Hospital, is measuring the decibels of various players. Audiophiles should listen to no more than 60 percent of the maximum volume for no more than an hour a day, he says. If you play it louder, play it less. 