$6M in health aid includes child obesity fight
Lauren Stanforth
Staff writer
(January 17, 2007) — The newest and largest health foundation in the Rochester area kicked off its goal to reduce childhood obesity Tuesday by awarding $6 million in community grants — one of which will track exactly how overweight Rochester-area children are.
The grants from the Greater Rochester Health Foundation will go to 26 organizations and will address community health concerns, including wellness in African Americans, rheumatology training for primary care physicians and support for a deaf community home health aide program.
One award complements what the foundation will be doing over the next several years. Researchers at Golisano Children's Hospital at Strong and the University of Rochester Medical Center received one of the largest grants, $272,335, to determine how overweight Rochester-area children are, where they live and even what might have happened in early childhood that caused them to develop weight problems.
The Greater Rochester Health Foundation was formed last year after $200 million in assets were gleaned from the merger of local insurer Preferred Care and MVP Health Care of Schenectady. The foundation is not connected to Preferred Care or MVP. The money for the foundation's works will be taken from interest generated from the $200 million.
Dr. Stephen Cook, assistant professor of pediatrics at Golisano Children's Hospital, said its grant would be used to analyze medical records of 8,000 children ages 2 to 18 to gather data on weight, height, residence, and any medical conditions.
Researchers will collate the medical data and information provided by Rochester parents about children entering kindergarten in the City School District, an annual survey that asks parents to reveal other facts about their children, such as exposure to domestic violence or other traumas early in childhoods. There might be a correlation between weight gain and life experience, Cook said.
"There might be certain pockets in our community that have high rates of obesity. (Children) are very much a product of their environments. They might be unable to be (physically active), they might not have reasonable access to fresh produce. Of all the chronic diseases affecting children, (obesity) is the most common one."
Cook said earlier research, from an immunization study in 1999, showed that up to 20 percent of children in the city were overweight, compared with up to 12 percent in the suburbs.
He said it was essential to provide current statistics about the obesity problem in local children so that other grants can be sought to attack the problem.
Despite the awards Tuesday, the Greater Rochester Health Foundation will focus more in the future on funding its initiatives, stopping obesity and improving the health of one or two neighborhoods.
The foundation is bringing in an expert from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention today to talk privately to the people who will help shape the local plan to target obesity.
John Urban, president of the foundation, said a plan to develop community obesity reduction programs should be released by this summer. The plan to address the overall health of one or two neighborhoods, likely city neighborhoods, will be released perhaps next year. Urban said the foundation was committed to providing $8 million in 2008 and $9 million to $10 million in 2009 toward its own initiatives.
The foundation had to award a certain percentage of its assets by the end of 2007 to fulfill IRS requirements, hence the 26 grants announced Tuesday. "Very few other (communities) have foundations of this size focusing specifically on health," said Urban, former leader of Preferred Care. "We think we're at the beginning of what will be a very exciting decade of positive change for health care in Rochester."
Childhood Obesity