Press Releases: Northwest
February 10, 2004
Kaiser Permanente to hold free forum in Spanish addressing childhood obesity
HILLSBORO, Ore. – Kaiser Permanente is holding a free forum at its medical office in Hillsboro on Tuesday, Feb. 24, for Spanish-speaking parents and other Spanish speakers interested in the problem of childhood obesity and ways to help Latino youth be healthy and active. The forum presenters will be Guatemalan-born Kaiser Permanente pediatrician Alvaro Rey-Rosa, MD, and diabetes educator Claudio Lima, PA. Their presentations will be followed by audience questions.
The forum will be held at 7 p.m. at Kaiser Permanente's Sunset Medical Office, 19400 NW Evergreen Parkway in Hillsboro. The forum, which will be entirely in Spanish, is open to everyone. Please register by calling Kaiser Permanente at 503-528-3909, Ore. toll-free 1-877-274-0824.
Kaiser Permanente is a group practice health care organization serving the health care needs of about 440,000 people in Oregon and Southwest Washington.
Physical activity and Hispanic children in the United States
Hispanic children in the United States are significantly less likely than non-Hispanic white children to report involvement in organized physical activities during the preceding week (25.9 percent versus 46.6 percent). This lower participation rate was also true for children with parents who had lower incomes and educational levels.
Hispanic parents mention expense most often as the barrier to their children's participation in physical activities (62.3 percent). The second most frequently cited barrier was lack of safety in their neighborhood (41.2 percent), followed by transportation problems (36.9 percent) and lack of available opportunities in their area (30.8 percent). Each of these concerns are mentioned more often by Hispanic parents than by parents who are non-Hispanic whites.
Soccer was mentioned most often as the organized physical activity engaged in by Hispanic boys and girls. For non-Hispanic white children, baseball or softball is reported as the most frequent organized physical activity.
Source: "Physical Activity Levels Among Children Aged 9-13 Yeas -- United States, 2002," a report of a national telephone survey of 3,600 U.S. households nationwide that appeared in the August 22, 2003 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report published by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
