Policy & Practice
Big Apple Tackles Obesity
New York City's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) has launched a series of physical activity and education campaigns to prevent childhood obesity. Training has begun for close to 500 pre-kindergarten teachers in the SPARK program (Sport, Play and Active Recreation for Kids), which provides skills and equipment for structuring physical activity into a child's day. “Nearly half of the city's elementary school students are either overweight or obese, and 21% are obese as early as kindergarten,” said Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the department's commissioner. “Our initiative makes healthy ideas and practices accessible for kids, because even a small increase in physical activity can help prevent excess weight gain and reduce risks later in life.”
Data on Youth Suicide Attempts
About 900,000 children aged 12–17 planned to commit suicide during their worst or most recent episode of major depression, according to data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Of those who planned suicide, 712,000 attempted it. The report, which was compiled using data from the 2004 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, defined a “major depressive episode” as a period of at least 2 weeks in which a person experienced a depressed mood or loss of interest or pleasure in daily activities, and had at least five of nine symptoms of depression listed in the DSM-IV.
Video-Induced Seizure Risks
The Epilepsy Foundation has released recommendations for reducing seizures triggered by flashing images and other patterns on television and in video games and computers. The guidelines, which appeard in the September issue of Epilepsia and on the foundation's Web site, address light intensity, flicker, contrast, duration, and pattern and define the technical parameters within these factors that are most likely to provoke seizures in people who are susceptible to them. Although no numbers are available on how many people experience seizures while watching television or surfing the Internet, some epileptologists say they have noticed an increase in the number of young people coming to them with this complaint. “Children and young adults 7–19 years of age are especially susceptible to visually induced seizures,” the journal said in a statement
