view . fall 2010
5
Dr. Sarah Woodruff, at left, is part of a team which will survey 900
7th grade students this fall about nutrition and physical activity.
Sarah Woodruff is concerned about
what some call an epidemic of
childhood obesity.
However, the kinesiology professor
disagrees with those who jump to the
conclusion that every child who is
overweight isn’t healthy.
“I think people can be healthy at any
size,” said Woodruff, whose research program focuses on the complex
relationships between health, nutrition behaviour and physical activity.
“You can have an overweight child who eats healthy and is physically
active. It might just be genetics working against them. Not everyone
can be skinny. When children try too hard to be skinny, that’s when
they end up having health problems.”
That’s not to suggest, however, that she doesn’t believe there are
a significant number of children out there whose weight issues are
attributable to poor nutrition and a lack of physical activity. She just
doesn’t know how many, which explains why she’s launching an
ambitious new survey to get a better sense of the nutrition and
health levels of children in Windsor and Essex County. It provides
another example of how the University is working to improve the
community as part of its strategic plan.
Beginning this fall, Woodruff will team up with Faculty of Nursing
researchers Katherine Fryer and Mary Cole, the Windsor-Essex County
Health Unit, the Bulimia and Anorexia-Nervosa Association (BANA)
and a variety of graduate and undergraduate students to conduct a
nutrition and physical activity survey of about 900 seventh grade
students at 30 local schools.
The 30-40 minute survey will give researchers data about the
student’s diet, physical activity and health behaviour, while the nurses
will measure their height, weight, blood pressure and waist sizes. The
survey will include questions about how often they eat breakfast,
whether they consume fruits and vegetables, how often they eat fast
food or from convenience stores and vending machines, with whom
they eat their meals, their involvement in organized sports, if they
play active video games and their sleep behaviour.
“There’s actually very little local data
that would show us what’s going on in
Windsor-Essex,” she said, “so we’re really
excited to be doing this. Without that local
data it makes it very difficult to plan for
any kind of health promotion. And the
timing of it is perfect.”
Ontario’s provincial government has
banned the sale of junk food in schools beginning in the fall of 2011,
so the survey will give researchers a base line of data before the ban
goes into effect. It will also allow them to go back several years from
now, survey another sample of seventh graders and measure whether
children are getting any healthier as a result of that ban.
In addition, Woodruff, along with colleagues from the University
of Waterloo and Mount St. Vincent University in Halifax, is using a
data set from Statistics Canada to develop a healthy eating index that
would provide a snapshot of how closely Canadians are following
the
Canada Food Guide
. The index would result in an easy-to-use
composite score that would help people determine if they’re getting
the right amount of nutrients. “Instead of looking at each nutrient
individually, we’re trying to put the whole diet together in a complete
picture,” she said.
A certified exercise physiologist, she’s also working with the Lancer
women’s varsity volleyball team conducting a study to determine
whether players are consuming enough calories for the energy they
expend. Players are required to fill out food logs and wear armbands
that record the amount of energy they exert over a 24-hour period.
“We need to make sure they’re eating enough of the right types
of food for their athletic performance,” she said.
The common goal of all these projects, she said, is to provide some
empirical evidence that will help create a more balanced awareness
among average Canadians about what it really means to be healthy.
“Health promotion strategies have to focus on healthy behaviour
rather than just weight,” she said. “Weight shouldn’t be the main
focus. It’s physical activity and nutrition behaviour that we should be
focusing on.”
n
v
WEIGHING IN
Connecting children’s health,
nutrition and obesity.
by stePhen fielDs
“HealtH promotion strategies
Have to focus on HealtHy
beHaviour ratHer tHan just
weigHt.”
SArAh WOODruff
