Defining and classifying diseases and risks linked to childhood obesity

In 2003, Arkansas launched comprehensive legislation that mandated all schools to measure the body mass index (BMI) of students. The Arkansas Center for Health Improvement was responsible for providing quality assurance and guidance to schools in the collection of this information and its provision to parents. The Foundation funded the Center to create and maintain a confidential database of the students' BMI information for the purpose of epidemiologic analysis and reporting out to school districts and communities to assist their planning. Through this support, the Center has now created the world's largest database that links demographic information and BMI data on children. However, with this success comes new challenges. This collaborative project will give the Center additional staffing and capacity to house the growing database and to develop proper procedures to share the internal review board-protected information. In addition, the project will assist the Center to field the many requests from other states for technical assistance in widespread BMI measurement and database management. Project deliverables are: (1) a plan to ensure database longevity and to maximize state and national utility of the database; and (2) a plan to replicate student BMI assessments for use by other states.

Grant Details

Amount Awarded $135,825.00

Awarded on: 8/29/2006

Time frame: 9/1/2006 - 9/30/2007

Grant Number: 57823