Week 12 Post 1

 Epidemiology:

The Dutch Hunger Winter

  • Summary: women who gave birth at the Wilhelmina Gasthuis during 2nd World War. Dutch pay great attention to detail and when women became pregnant they recorded birth weight and all other relevant details--"painstakingly recorded".
  • Dutch Famine Cohort Study (Tess Roseboom/Barker): Winter of 1944, Germany retaliated anticipated defeat by blocking all food shipments to parts of the Netherlands (Amsterdam, etc.)
  • Lasted 7 months
  • Once healthy nation quickly starved (as few as 400 calories per day)
  • Cold, famine, constant worry=higher rates of infectious disease and increased mortality
Easy to study because:
  1. Lasted only a few months
  2. Well-defined group affected
Findings: People whose mothers were pregnant during the famine were two times as likely to have heart disease/More likely to be obese, suffer from diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, than mothers pregnant during normal conditions


Ted Talks

"This Is Not Your High School Health Class"

  • health teacher who was coach or PE teacher beforehand... why? Yikes!
  • We use fear (sex health class)
EX. sex is bad, this food is bad for you, drugs in your brain pictures
Taught Answers are "Just say no!"

But we need to...
Teach students how to say no

  • Health behavior theory: knowledge alone does not change behavior. Skills form mastery.
Area of Concern at 1 school; binge drinking 

7 Health Skills:
  1. Accessing valid and reliable information. (How? Research health questions)
  2. Analyzing influences (to nutrition)-Positive and negative
  3. Communication Skills (conflict resolution/role play/do regularly).
  4. Decision making (drugs/alcohol)-(assessing values/will you repeat?)
  5. Goal Setting (SMART)
  6. Self-Management (leads to self-efficacy/can help others)
  7. Advocacy- any area of health that they are passionate about/it builds/topic for everyone 
What role can they play in building a future world? Decision making?


Milne, Andy. "This is Not Your Parents' Health Class". TEDxBarringtonAreaLibrary. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HguR3ZfSFec

PE Is a Student's Most Important Subject

PE=only class that does all: 
  • promotes physical/emotional health
  • Helps children learn better
  • Cultivates characters needed to be productive adults 
  • Should be core subject 
Subject that students lives DEPEND on

Median Annual Budget for PE: $764/ thats like pennies per kid
Reading/Math=subjects most affected by exercise
8th Graders given math test-students who did 30 minutes of vigorous exercise did 22% better

Exercise is the brains MiracleGrow:
  1. Optimizes mindset
  2. Binds cells together
  3. New nerve cells in hippocampus
Mayo Clinic:
Endorphins-low grade affect on depression and anxiety (exercise makes endorphins)

SITTING IS THE NEW SMOKING

Inactivity-so widespread (how can we reduce in schools)

1/3 American children overweight/14 mil obese (CDC):
  • bullied at school
  • low self-esteem
  • poor academic performance
  • poor employment products as adults
  • disease now present in children (diabetes, hypertension, etc.)
First generation EVER to have a shorter expected life-span than their parents 

19 year olds are getting no more exercise than 60 years olds.
This has financial consequences as well. 
John Hopkins-all kids 8-11, pit on program of regular exercise--25 minutes, 3x a week (20% less than recommended)--the savings will be $62.3 billion over the course of their lifetime (lost wages, medical cost)

Solutions: schools 

Children in low-income neighborhoods 9x more likely to be overweight:
  • lack of play spaces (safe)
  • no low-cost organized sports 
  • adequate grocery stores
PE= children's only realistic chance

Adults have to make the best decisions for them 
Not a matter of resources, but priorities/ Worked when Kennedy rallied for a fit nation 
PE must be the most important subject in school. It is a prerequisite to success. 

Simon, William Jr. "Why is Physical Education a Student's Most Important Subject?". TEDxTalks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azuBmRnRYpo

Teaching "The Great Diseases"

Tufts Medical Research Center (data by)
66% students value learning about science 
98% valued learning about health (and science)/ rural, urban, suburban agreement

Barriers: professional separation (Med school-High School) and funding 

The Great Disease Curriculum(full year):
  1. Infectious Disease
  2. Neurological Disorders
  3. Metabolic Disease
  4. Cancers 
Asked students after:
Whats the first word that comes to mind about the Infectious disease module?
most common response: interesting
  • students are not confident in their ability to learn about health topics
  • Health literacy=really bad
  • If you don't feel like you can learn about it, why seek it out?
After course 50% felt confident in their healthy literacy (beforehand almost none)
Teacher-to-scientist partnership is important. 

Jacque, Berri. "Teaching 'The Great Diseases" in High School". TEDcBeaconStreet. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Abc3e8gthBM

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