How Panhandle AHEC Has Helped
Because the state law requiring a coordinated school health curriculum was an unfunded mandate, many school districts have struggled with implementation. This need presented an opportunity for the Panhandle Area Health Education Center (AHEC) Program to work directly with school leaders in a different capacity than the traditional health careers promotion classroom presentations. In addition, it offered the Panhandle AHEC a means of developing a significant outreach to promote healthy living, which is one of the Program’s four key strategies.
In 2005, the Panhandle AHEC, utilizing funding allocated from the West Texas AHEC Program Office, provided K-5th grade CATCH curriculums to nine (9) school districts encompassing 18 elementary schools. In addition, the Region 16 Education Service Center in Amarillo provided curriculums to eleven (11) school districts which encompassed 15 elementary schools. The Panhandle AHEC partnered with Region 16 ESC to cosponsor three CATCH training sessions in January, March, and October of 2005. At the beginning of the new school year, 2005-06, Panhandle AHEC provided the 18 elementary schools with a set of 60 playground balls to assist their physical education teachers in implementing the physical activity portion of the curriculum. The 20 school districts that have benefited from the support provided by the AHEC and ESC 16 are: Adrian, Borger, Canadian, Claude, Dalhart, Dumas, Gruver, Hereford, Highland Park, Samnorwood, Sanford-Fritch, Sunray, Texhoma, Texline, Wellington, and Wildorado ISD’s and Plemons-Stinnett-Phillips, Pringle-Morse CISD’s.
While the initial rollout of the curriculum provided an immediate benefit to the participating schools as well as their 10,266 elementary students, the continued collection of BMI data may yield more significant information about children’s health. It is anticipated that implementation of CATCH in these rural school districts will yield the same results that the initial CATCH school-based study did: improved outcomes in healthy food intake and increased physical activity, even years later. The other possible avenue for study, which continues to be developed, focuses on differences in overweight and obesity for rural versus urban populations.
C.A.T.C.H - Helping Rural Schools Improve Children's Health
Concern about Children’s Health
With children and adults becoming increasingly more overweight across the United States, concerns about increased risk for Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, some cancers, and other diseases that lower life expectancy and the quality of life have focused national attention on the causes for overweight and obesity and on ways to combat our expanding waistlines
.
The Centers for Disease Control notes that children of obese parents are more likely to also have weight issues. If both parents are obese, the child has an 80% chance of being obese. If one parent is obese, the child has a 50% chance of being obese. According to the National Institutes of Health, overweight children are significantly more likely to be overweight adults. An obese 10-year-old child has a 70-80% risk of being an obese adult.
Childhood obesity in Texas has become a critical concern. According to the Texas State Department of Health Services, almost 39% of Texas 4th graders are overweight or at risk for being overweight. That percentage does not decrease significantly by high school, with approximately 29% of 11th graders overweight or at-risk of being overweight. In addition, the prevalence of overweight and at-risk for being overweight is higher among Texas’ African-American and Hispanic children for all age groups, with the exception of African-American 8th grade boys.
Healthy habits that have a positive effect on weight maintenance begin during childhood. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control, more than 60% of young people eat too much fat, and less than 20% eat the recommended five or more servings of fruits and vegetables each day. In addition, it was found that only 8% of elementary schools, 6.4% of middle schools and 5.8% of high schools provide daily physical education.
Texas state law now requires elementary schools to implement by 2007 a coordinated school health program approved by the Texas Education Agency to prevent obesity, cardiovascular disease, and Type 2 diabetes in elementary school students. The program must provide four components: health education, physical education and physical activity, nutrition services, and parental involvement.
Currently, there are four available coordinated school health curricula that are approved by the Texas Education Agency: Bienestar Health Program, CATCH (Coordinated Approach to Child Health), The Great Body Shop, and Healthy and Wise.
About CATCH
CATCH stands for Coordinated Approach to Child Health (formerly known as Child and Adolescent Trial for Cardiovascular Health), which was the largest school-based health promotion study ever done in the United States. The curriculum is designed to prevent sedentary behavior, poor dietary choices, and tobacco usage at the elementary school level.
Research from the initial and subsequent studies showed that CATCH worked. Students who participated in CATCH consumed less fat and had higher levels of physical activity—even as 8th graders, three years later—than non-participating students. Not only did students’ healthy behaviors improve, there were also noted improvements in the schools: CATCH cafeterias served meals that were lower in fat and physical education classes were more active. 
The CATCH program includes K-5th physical education “CATCH PE”; heart health classroom curricula and family components for K through the 5th grades; an “Eat Smart” school nutrition program guide for school cafeterias; and Family Fun Night activities. The purpose for the family activities is to engage the parents in the healthy lessons that the children learn at school so that they can help reinforce healthy choices at home.
The CATCH classroom component is designed to align with other core subjects, providing age-appropriate lessons and activities that allow students to incorporate information and skills learned in other subjects. For example, while students learn in science how the heart pumps blood through the body, the CATCH activity teaches them how exercise helps to make the heart healthier—and students get a chance to practice math skills by measuring and graphing their resting and active heart rates.
For more information about CATCH check out their website:
http://www.sph.uth.tmc.edu/catch/
