Bmi tool schools

The CDC convened an expert panel on the role of schools in addressing childhood overweight during which the topic of BMI reporting was addressed G. The panel concluded that there was insufficient evidence to recommend that schools conduct BMI screening and report the results to parents. No consensus was obtained as to whether or not to recommend such actions Table I.

Ten key strategies [ 14 ]. As a consequence, consensus regarding what constitutes effective treatment programs has not been reached.

The preponderance of recommendations coming from various agencies and organizations advocate that resources be directed toward prevention [ 17 , 18 ]. Even if schools detect the problem of childhood overweight, there is concern regarding their ability to recommend effective low-cost therapies that are readily available in the community.

According to the guidelines for school health screening programs, school administrators are responsible for hiring or contracting health professionals who have completed the appropriate academic training for their field and are licensed, credentialed or certified to provide the services and education for which they are responsible.

These professionals may delegate health-related services to unlicensed assistants as long as they are trained, oriented and supervised by the appropriate professional. The guidelines point out that assigning such duties to untrained employees may provide a poor quality of care and expose schools to legal risk. The most appropriate persons to conduct school health screenings are school nurses [ 19 ].

However, today there are limited numbers of school nurses available to manage screenings. A USA Today examination of Census records showed that the national student-to-nurse ratio of : 1 is well over the recommended federal ratio of : 1. The report blamed the problem on overextended school district budgets, poor enforcement of the federal ratio recommendations and low school nurse salaries [ 20 ].

In the United States, teachers, teaching assistants and even volunteers are conducting BMI screenings of students [ 6 ].

The National Association of School Nurses has issued a consensus statement on clarifying the process of delegating tasks, such as conducting health screenings, to unlicensed assistive personnel [ 21 ]. Even then, it is the school nurse who is deemed responsible for the overall supervision and management of these tasks in the school setting. Interestingly, the legislation passed in Arkansas or Tennessee does not mandate that school nurses oversee height—weight screenings conducted in their schools, although there is evidence that Arkansas school nurses are playing a major role in that state's BMI screening [ 22 ].

Having a school nurse manage the task of BMI screening increases the likelihood that this task will be carried out in a caring and sensitive manner, and that accurate measurements will be taken. Nurses use established protocols for conducting health screening and their training includes thoughtful and respectful collection of health data. School administrators assume that weighing and measuring children can be done efficiently if the process is well organized and managed, although there are no data available on how much time it takes to conduct these screenings.

It does require that funds be spent to purchase equipment as well as train and supervise staff to take the actual measurements. Accurately weighing and measuring children is not just a matter of having a child step on a scale and stand against a stadiometer. The Center on Weight and Health has issued detailed instructions for collecting these data in a uniform manner [ 23 ]. Once these measurements are taken, staff can electronically calculate and record the BMI of individual students.

If this information is to be communicated to parents, a process reporting needs to be developed and implemented. Schools need to consider whether the cost of carrying out these tasks is the best way to use limited resources. There is no research demonstrating that this is a cost-effective way to address the problem of childhood obesity.

Schools need to consider whether they want to expend monies this way, or if it might be more fruitful to use the funds to implement strategies the CDC has identified as being key to the prevention of obesity. One of the biggest problems with collecting BMI information on children is interpreting this information in terms of the weight status of an individual child. In order to assess a child's weight, health professionals examine the child's growth history, taking into consideration the heights and weights of the child's biological parents.

They also ask questions about the child's eating and activity patterns [ 24 ]. Schools, on the other hand, may have only one piece of information—the child's current BMI—to use in assessing the child's weight status. These researchers expressed concern that schools may falsely mislabel a needless number of children as overweight based on BMI screening [ 26 ]. In the United Kingdom, the collection of these data is specifically for the purpose of population monitoring.

Height and weight measurements are entered into a computer data management program for aggregation and calculation of population statistics. School personnel are actively discouraged from calculating BMIs for individual students. Although these should not be given routinely they should be given if requested. Be certain that all written and oral communications with families are available in a language, literacy level, and level of understanding that will be understood.

Teachers, school staff, and school administrators should receive training on communicating with diverse populations and on effective communication techniques'.

This raises the concern as to whether or not schools have access to resources that will enable them to prepare staff to deal with an issue as emotionally laden as childhood obesity, which even pediatricians have had difficulty addressing [ 27 ]. Of particular concern is the fact that school staff may hold negative attitudes about obese children, viewing them as more emotional, as less tidy and less likely to succeed and as having different personalities and more family problems than the non-obese [ 28 ].

Even if schools do not conduct BMI screening, there is a need for interventions that will impact attitudes about obesity. Recently, a Web-based intervention was found to be effective in communicating messages regarding size acceptance that resulted in long-term improvements in the attitudes of teachers [ 29 ]. This appears to be a cost-effective way to reach large numbers of teachers and educate them about size discrimination.

Perhaps the most critical question to ask about BMI report cards is what do parents do after receiving them. To date, there has only been one published study evaluating parental reaction to a school health report card containing information about a child's weight status [ 30 ]. The study was carried out in Cambridge, MA, USA, with a group of ethnically, racially and linguistically diverse families.

Families were mailed a personalized health report card that had their children's height, weight and weight status overweight, at risk of overweight, healthy weight and underweight recorded along with fitness test results and health education materials.

About half of the families with overweight children indicated that they were somewhat or very concerned about their child's weight status. Concerned parents were more likely to plan weight-control strategies than less concerned parents. They were not more apt to adopt the preventive lifestyle behaviors described in the health education materials than were parents of children in the healthy weight range.

Of even greater concern is the fact that a small number of parents who had non-overweight children reported their intent to limit their child's food intake. Further research is needed in terms of the reactions of parents to the news that their children are overweight. In the only study examining the reaction of parents to a BMI report card, a significant number of parents responded to the news that their children were overweight by putting the children on calorie-restricted diets.

Limiting the caloric intake of children who have not gone through puberty is problematic in that it can result in stunting growth in height [ 31 ]. It may also lead to behavioral problems such as sneaking food, hiding food and overeating when there is unlimited access to food [ 32 , 33 ].

Teenagers are apt to view dieting as an effective means of losing weight. To order pads of the growth charts, please use this form: Order Form The BMI-for-age percentile growth charts have been updated to include a new weight status category labeled "severely obese" for youths with a BMI at or above the 99th percentile.

Black and White 8. Poster 17" x 22" PDF, , 1pg. This calculator computes BMI and BMI percentiles for individual children in a group using height and weight measurements, sex, date of birth, and date of measurement information that you enter, or import from a spreadsheet or data file.

This calculator is an Excel spreadsheet that can be downloaded onto your computer. You can view each of these using the tabs at the bottom of the window. This resource describes the purpose of school-based BMI surveillance and screening, examines current practices, summarizes the recommendations of experts, identifies concerns surrounding programs, and outlines needs for future research.

Guidance is provided on specific safeguards that need to be addressed before schools decide to collect BMI information. Following is a list of safeguards that schools can use to address concerns that have been raised about school-based BMI measurement programs and increase the potential positive impact the program may have on promoting a healthy weight. Safeguard 1. Safeguard 2. Ensure that staff members who measure height and weight have the appropriate expertise and training to obtain accurate and reliable results and minimize the potential for stigmatization.

Safeguard 3. Research shows that obese or overweight children are more likely to be overweight or obese as adults, which can lead to diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and other health problems. The act identifies several priorities for Arkansas public schools to address healthy eating and increased physical activity. In , Arkansas established the first statewide, multifaceted strategy to combat the epidemic of childhood and adolescent obesity.