SCHIP Funds Reallocated
Pediatricians in 12 states and five territories who feared that State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) money would run out can breathe a little easier; federal checks to their programs are in the mail. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced that unspent funds would be reallocated to states in greatest need, an established process. This year, the surplus totaled $173 million, falling “far short of the $456 million that was needed to keep every SCHIP program running,” CMS said in a statement; therefore, the remaining funds were appropriated via the Deficit Reduction Act. States such as Illinois needed the extra funds because they are “doing a great job” of enrolling children and adolescents in SCHIP, said Dr. Mark Rosenberg, a Chicago pediatrician who serves on a governmental affairs committee for the American Academy of Pediatrics. Of the funds redistributed, Illinois received $117.5 million; Iowa, $6 million; Maryland, $13.7 million; Massachusetts, $21.9 million; Minnesota, $20 million; Mississippi, $73.6 million; Missouri, $8 million; Nebraska, $15.7 million; New Jersey, $105.6 million; North Carolina, $2.8 million; Rhode Island, $66 million; and South Dakota, $0.5 million. The SCHIP program differs from Medicaid, an open-ended program under which states can ask for matching funds, according to CMS. Under SCHIP, allocations of federal money are made based on a 3-year budget estimate.
Boost Active Living in 2006–2007
Sustainable active-living policies have the best chance of reversing current trends in pediatric obesity, and the 2006–2007 school year brings a new opportunity for pediatricians to advocate such policies. Writing in the journal Pediatrics, the Council on Sports Medicine and Fitness and Council on School Health said that federal legislation reauthorizing the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children program has created that window. That law requires every school getting funding through the National School Lunch and/or Breakfast Program to develop a local wellness policy with a particular focus on obesity. “[Physical education] curricula and instruction should emphasize the knowledge, attitudes, and motor and behavioral skills required to adopt and maintain lifelong habits of physical activity,” the authors recommended, citing a study of 9,751 kindergarten students in which overweight girls significantly reduced their body mass index when physical education instruction time expanded. “Despite a significant increase in PE class time, there was no interference with academic attainment, and some achievement test results improved,” the authors said. But PE is not enough, and neither are organized sports, they noted. Children and adolescents should be encouraged to accumulate at least 60 minutes of physical activity a day, they said.
Bullying May Discourage Exercise
Bullying may deter overweight youth from physical activity, a preliminary study found. Eric A. Storch, Ph.D, and his colleagues at the University of Florida surveyed 92 at-risk-for-overweight and overweight children and adolescents who attended a scheduled appointment at the University of Florida Pediatric Lipid Clinic and asked them about peer victimization, psychosocial adjustment, and physical activity. “Overall, peer victimization was negatively associated with physical activity and positively associated with self-reports of depressive symptoms, anxiety, loneliness, and social physique anxiety, and parent reports of internalizing and externalizing behavior problems,” the authors wrote. The Social Skills Group Intervention can help in the school environment, they continued in the April edition of the Journal of Pediatric Psychology. Clinicians might “discuss the methods of countering bullying and help the youngster problem-solve ways to exercise without risking being bullied,” they added. However, the bullying may not always result from “being different” by virtue of greater body mass. Social skills deficits and disruptive behavior might also be factors, Dr. Storch and colleagues noted.
Underage Drinking Up—and Down
Underage alcohol use was up in California and Wisconsin in 2003–2004, compared with a year earlier, but down in Michigan and South Carolina, according to a new report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The survey found that the percentage of 12- to 20-year-olds using alcohol within the past month rose from 24.7% to 26.3% in California and from 34.7% to 38.3% in Wisconsin. The percentage fell in Michigan, from 31.8% to 30.2%, and in South Carolina, from 27.3% to 24.1%. “While we are making progress on drug and tobacco use among youth, underage drinking continues as a stubbornly persistent problem,” said SAMHSA Administrator Charles Curie. “It's time to change attitudes toward teen drinking from acceptance to abstinence.”