U.S. adults rate “not enough exercise” at the top of the list of big health problems for children in their communities, according to the sixth annual survey of top health concerns conducted by the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health.
Other top health concerns include childhood obesity, smoking, drug abuse and bullying.
Hispanic adults were more likely to rate childhood obesity first, followed by “not enough exercise,” and also rated drug abuse higher than smoking and tobacco use.
Hispanic and black adults both identified sexually transmitted infections as a greater concern for kids in their communities than did white adults.
Despite these differences, Hispanic, black and white adults agreed that “not enough exercise” and obesity are two of the top three most pressing health concerns for kids in their communities. Other concerns that made the top 10 in all three groups included drug abuse, smoking and tobacco use, bullying, and teen pregnancy.
Amelie G. Ramirez, DrPH, directs the Institute for Health Promotion Research at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, which researches Latino health issues and founded the SaludToday Latino health blog, Twitter and Facebook. Dr. Ramirez, an internationally recognized cancer health disparities researcher, has spent 30 years directing research on human and organizational communication to reduce chronic disease and cancer health disparities affecting Latinos, including cancer risk factors, clinical trial recruitment, tobacco prevention, obesity prevention, healthy lifestyles, and more. She also trains/mentors Latinos in behavioral sciences and is on the board of directors for LIVESTRONG, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, and others. She was elected to the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academies in 2007.