Medical X-Press – Staff Writer
“Increases in overweight and obesity rates among young children occur during summer vacations, not during the school year, according to new research from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin. Paul von Hippel, an associate professor of public affairs at the LBJ School, examined body mass index (BMI) and obesity prevalence in a nationally representative sample of 18,170 children from the start of kindergarten in 2010 through the end of second grade in 2013. The results, published in the journal Obesity, provide insight into whether the causes of childhood obesity lie primarily inside or outside of schools. Between the start of kindergarten and the end of second grade, all of the increases in overweight and obesity prevalence occurred during the two summer vacations, not during the three school years.”(more)