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Nutrition Publications

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Reports/Documents

  • Knowledge Path Edition: Child and Adolescent Nutrition
    This electronic resource guide offers a selection of current, high-quality resources that analyze data, describe public health campaigns and other promotion programs, and report on research aimed at identifying promising strategies for improving nutrition and eating behaviors within families, schools, and communities. Separate sections identify resources on nutrition assistance programs, school-based nutrition education and food service, and nutrition information for families.
  • Action for Healthy Kids: Healthy Schools Summit
         This report commemorates the second anniversary of the historic Healthy Schools Summit held in Washington, DC, which launched AFHK, a public-private partnership of more than 40 national organizations and government agencies representing education, health, fitness, and nutrition. AFHK addresses the epidemic of overweight, undernourished, and sedentary youth by focusing on changes at school.
  • Childhood Obesity: Costs, Treatment Patterns, Disparities in Care, and Prevalent Medical Conditions
    This report indicates that 16 percent of U.S. children could be considered obese. Furthermore, there are growing concerns that obesity disproportionately affects those who are least able to afford care: children covered by public health
    insurance such as Medicaid. To shed light on this problem, Thomson Medstat investigated the prevalence, cost, and treatment of obesity among children covered by Medicaid compared to those covered by private health insurance. We found substantial disparities associated with different insurance coverage and health status.
  • Journals Focus On Childhood Overweight And Obesity
    The Spring 2006 issue of The Future of Children, titled Childhood Obesity, lays out the evidence related to the multiple causes, consequences, and methods of dealing with childhood obesity. The e-journal, published by Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and the Brookings Institution, is a collection of articles that present up-to-date literature reviews and analyses written by leading researchers and experts from many disciplines. Topics include trends, potential causes, and consequences of childhood overweight and obesity; economics and childhood obesity policy; the role of built environments in physical activity, eating, and obesity in childhood; the role of schools and child care settings in obesity prevention; targeting interventions for ethnic minority and low-income populations; and treating childhood obesity and associated medical conditions.
  • Formative Research for a Campaign to Promote Healthy Weight Using Relevant Physical Activity and Nutrition Messages for Youth
    This report summarizes a collaborative qualitative research study conducted by the CDC’s Division of Nutrition and Physical Activity (DNPA) and by Westat. The activities summarized are a part of a communication effort that will use relevant physical activity and nutrition messages to promote healthy weight among youth.
  • Medicaid Reimbursement for Medical Nutrition Products and Nutrition Services for Children with Special Health Care Needs: A Washington State Case Studies Report
    This recent report documents the costs and health/nutrition outcomes of providing medical nutrition products, and nutrition services by a certified dietitian, to children with special health care needs covered by the Washington State Medicaid program. The report includes 17 case studies, describing diagnosis, nutrition products and services provided, outcomes and costs. The report recommends supporting a reimbursement system for medical nutrition products and medical nutrition therapy (MNT) for children with special health care needs. The project was a collaboration between the Children with Special Health Care Needs Program, Washington State Department of Health, and the Center on Human Development, University of Washington.
  • Preventing Childhood Obesity: Health in the Balance
    This report developed by the Institute of Medicine has an action plan to las out explicit goals and recommendations for preventing obesity and promoting healthy weight in children and youth in various segments of society. It also explores the actions needed to initiate, support, and sustain the societal and lifestyle changes that can reverse the trend among our children and youth. This report is also available for purchase.
  • Overweight Children and Youth
    More than one in seven children were overweight in the United States in 1999-2000, triple the
    rate of the 1960s. From the Child Trends DataBank.
  • The Role of Media in Childhood Obesity
    This Kaiser Family Foundation report that reviews more than 40 studies on the role of media in the nation’s dramatically increasing rates of childhood obesity explores what researchers do and do not know about the role media plays in childhood obesity. It also outlines media-related policy options that have been proposed to help address childhood obesity and identifies ways media could play a positive role in helping to address this important public health problem.
  • Report Highlights Successful Efforts to Improve the School Nutrition Environment
    The authors found that six approaches evolved as a result of input from schools and school districts on the types of changes they were making to improve the quality of competitive foods (foods and beverages schools sell that are not part of federally regulated school meal programs). These approaches included the following: (1) establish nutrition standards for competitive foods, (2) influence food and beverage contracts, (3) make more healthful foods and beverages available, (4) adopt marketing techniques, (5) limit student access to competitive foods, and (6) use fundraising activities and rewards.
  • Brief Highlights Need For Coordination Of Public And Private Resources To Combat Childhood Obesity
    Tackling Childhood Obesity Through Public-Private Collaboration reveals numerous insights on the topic of childhood obesity and the innovative strategies that health plans are pursuing to address the problem. The brief, prepared by the National Institute for Healthcare Management with support from the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, discusses the causes of childhood obesity and its health, psychosocial, and economic consequences. Strategies that health plans are implementing to fight the epidemic and their efforts to evaluate intervention strategies are presented. A summary of the most current and key obesity-reduction-related recommendations for clinical and community-based interventions is also included. The brief is intended for use by the private and public sectors in working together to develop a successful national strategy for combating childhood obesity.
  • Criteria for Evaluating School Based Approaches to Increasing Good Nutrition and Physical Activity
    The report presents a description of the methodology for developing the evaluation criteria, lists the actual criteria, and suggests incentives for motivating action among stakeholders. The report is intended for use by policymakers, educators, researchers, and others in measuring the potential effectiveness and adoptability of a broad range of policies, programs, interventions, and practices.

 Last Updated September 30, 2005

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