The Picture of Health Foundation, Tucker Middle School, DeKalb County Board of Health and their partners will host a 5K walk/run and community health fair on Saturday, September 24, 2011.
The certified 5K run/walk begins at Tucker Middle School, located at2160 Idlewood Road in Tucker. The run/walk is followed by a community health fair with diabetes, posture, blood pressure check and Body Mass Index screenings as well as health education on childhood obesity and secondhand smoke prevention.
The event is being held in conjunction with National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month in September and learning the facts about obesity can help reduce the health problem.
- More than 12.5 million children in the United States are overweight, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In Georgia, 28,000 third graders are obese and 56,000 middle school students are obese.
- Obesity is a major challenge for both adults and youth in DeKalb County. Twenty-four percent of adults and 13 percent of public-school students in the county are obese. Further, 71 percent of adults and 80 percent of youth do not consume the recommended daily servings of fruits and vegetables, and 53 percent of adults and 65 percent of youth do not engage in the recommended levels of physical activity.
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