Background Childhood obesity represents a public health crisis in the United States. Thus, focusing on early childhood is crucial to modify the consequences associated with obesity. The Food and Fitness Initiative (FFI) is a community-based wellness program implemented in Northeast Iowa since 2009. FFI focuses on healthy eating and physical activity. Our aim is to describe the impact on body mass index (BMI) after implementing FFI in a Northeast Iowa Community Action Head Start (HS) population. Methods Retrospective BMI data was collected from all children attending 14 HS sites from 2012 to 2018. Children with BMI measurements during July to December of the first year in HS were included in the study. Follow-up data the second year in HS was obtained. Overweight and obesity prevalence, as well as, BMI changes between year 1 and 2 in HS were analyzed. Results Data from 1013 children were collected, 850 (84%) had qualifying BMI measurements during their first year in HS and 352 of those children (41%) had follow-up data in their second year. There was a decrease in BMI between years 1 and 2 in HS that approached statistical significance ( t = 1.83, P = .07, d = .10). There were no statistically significant changes in the percent of overweight (Wald χ2 = .50, P = .48) or obese (Wald χ2 = 1.71, P = .19) children between the first and second year. Conclusion The FFI wellness program can be feasibly integrated into the HS curriculum and shows promising short-term results in improving BMI, but not to a statistically significant level when evaluated over 1 year.
This study examined the prospective relationships between preschoolers’ body mass index (BMI) and cognitive development. BMI, cognitive (i.e., Brigance), sex, and age data were collected from seven cohorts of children attending Head Start from 2012 to 2018. Children (N = 324) with two years of complete data were included. After controlling for the first year cognitive development scores, age, gender, and the cohort, the BMI was predictive of lower cognitive development scores in year two (B = −0.06, β = −0.14, t = −3.19, p = 0.002). Female sex (B = 2.69, β = 0.10, t = 2.30, p = 0.022) and older age (B = 0.02, β = 0.15, t = 3.20, p ≤ 0.001) were also shown to be statistically significant predictors of improved year two cognitive scores. The initial BMI scores were associated with poorer one year cognitive development scores in this sample of preschool children. Excessive body mass may contribute to numerous biological, psychological, and social factors that inhibit children with obesity from reaching their full cognitive potential, during a time in which brain development and cognitive skills development are at critical points of growth. Early childhood obesity interventions may have positive consequences for cognitive development, but additional prospective studies are needed to confirm these results.
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