Health fair brings attention kids

By Carolyn Casey
Rocky Mount Telegram

Residents gathered on the east side of Rocky Mount Saturday to better understand health issues affecting youth today.

Opportunities Industrialization Center’s Medical Center held a child health fair at its office to educate the community on the major health problems in the area and the resources available to residents.

“We have a lot of health fairs that are always geared to adults and seniors,” OIC Medical Center Office Manager Rita Boddie said. “We really fell we need to bring a lot of attention to our children’s health.”

One of the fair’s main objectives was to inform children, as well as their parents, about the risks youth face, Boddie said. The two major health problems pediatric physicians at OIC see are juvenile diabetes and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

The OIC Medical Center estimates between 30 percent and 40 percent of its youth patients have ADHD, when the average statistic hovers around 5 percent in school-aged children.

Dr. Kari Lewis with ADHD Behavior Education Services said some surrounding counties, such as Johnston County, also are seeing higher numbers of children with the disorder.

Lewis couldn’t explain the numbers, but she said, “sometimes it’s overreported because of possible lack of discipline.”

Lewis was one of several speakers that addressed the crowd as she stressed ADHD is a disorder that people continue to cope with into adulthood.

“It’s really a prevalent problem,” she said. “I think a key thing to remember is it used to be characterized only as a childhood problem.”

In addition to speakers, organizations set up booths along the center’s parking lot handing out free information and discussing local resources, and free Tdap vaccines were given.

Representatives from Almand’s Drug Store, which has a location across the street from the medical center, shared information on its medical assistance program that allows patients who can’t afford private insurance to buy prescriptions for $4.

Community Care Plan of Eastern Carolina was on hand, teaching children about nutritious food and proper food portions.

The day also included a few fun perks. Children jumped in a bouncing inflatable play house and had their faces painted.

As Mikayla Edgerton, 10, stood in line to get her face painted, her dad, Tony Edgerton, said attending the fair was his children’s suggestion.

“It’s something to do for the kids, and it’s teaching them something,” he said.

Organizers said they hope the fair becomes an annual program. The plan is to continue the quasi-back-to-school event a few weeks into the school year, so parents can bring their children to the medical center once they know which vaccines each child needs, Practice Manager Queen Bethea said.

“We’re hoping this can be an annual event,” she said. “and recognize our kids and let them know we appreciate them.”

Study: stressed mothers may raise fat children

BEIJING, Sept. 3 -- Millions of poor children in the United States may be getting fat before age 10 because their mothers are stressed out and the youngsters seek escape in unhealthy comfort food, researchers said on Tuesday.

The stress is rooted in poverty and can be brought on by money woes, work loads, insufficient health insurance and other factors, said Craig Gundersen of the University of Illinois, who led the study.

"People will eat in response to feeling stress," he said in a telephone interview, and in this case children may be eating more in response to stress-related trouble at home.

The findings show there is a need for a firm social safety net for poor families with protections such as food stamps; better financial education to help people better manage money; and adequate health insurance coverage, he said.

Gundersen and colleagues at Iowa State University and Michigan State University looked at data on 841 children in families living below the poverty line who were part of a government nutrition survey conducted from 1999 to 2002.

"We found that the cumulative stress experienced by the child's mother is an important determinant of child overweight," the research team reported in a study published in the September issue of Pediatrics.

Children in stressed homes where there was plentiful food were more likely to be overweight or obese than those living in stressed situations where food was scarce, they added, because while both were reacting to stress, the former group had food available in which to find refuge.

"Children in food-secure households may have a greater ability to consume more 'comfort foods,' which are often unhealthy, in response to the (stress) they experience," they wrote.

Because most American children do not live in settings where food is scarce, the findings on maternal stress "may be an important factor for children in the United States who are overweight or obese," they concluded.

"Our findings are particularly relevant for children between the ages of 3 and 10," the researchers wrote, because older children can find release outside the home through friends or work.

An estimated 17 percent of US children between the ages of 2 and 19 are obese and another 16 percent are overweight.

"A number of mothers in this study suffer from at least one symptom of depression and anxiety. By providing these women with relevant medical care and counseling, these symptoms may be alleviated with the further indirect benefit of reducing childhood overweight," the researchers wrote.

Hulshof Rolls Out His Health Care Plan

(Springfield, MO) -- Many people believe a key issue in this year's Missouri gubernatorial campaign is affordable health care.

Wednesday, the Republican who wants to lead the state came to Springfield to unveil his plan.

Congressman Kenny Hulshof wants to establish the "Healthy Missouri Access Exchange -- or Health MAX.

The idea is that any individual, small business or employer will have the option of naming Health MAX as their plan.

Once in the system -- users can choose from a variety of plans to fit their needs.

Hulshof says Health MAX addresses the needs of low income Missourians because they would be able to save money in a state sponsored health savings account.
"And part of the savings, we have a modest co-pay," Hushof said. "We think part of the situation we're in now is that people don't take ownership of their own health care decisions. And so we want them to be involved in their own health care decisions."

Hulshof also says health max will also offer health spending debit cards -- and tax incentives will be offered for Missourians to join the program.

Hulshof's opponent, Democrat Jay Nixon's health care plan has a buy in option for any Missouri child into the children health insurance program which right now is only for lower income children.

It creates a one-stop-shop website for Missourians to compare insurance options and restores the health care cuts made in 2005.