Childhood Obesity: The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act and School-Aged Children

Obesity among children in America is at an all time high, 57.3% of the nation’s children will be obese by the age of 35. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act (HHFKA) policy. The HHFKA modified the nutritional and physical policies in order to reduce the obesity rates by changing their expenditures. Schools in all 50 states that are subject to federal, state and local nutrition regulations were researched. This was a quantitative, non-experimental, correlation study that measured state compliance with the USDA guidelines and tested for an association between compliance score/rate and the school-aged children’s obesity rates using descriptive statistical analysis. Energy Imbalance Theory (EIT) is the theoretical framework used for understanding obesity. A hierarchical linear regression was used to show the strength of the relationship between childhood obesity rates and compliance scores by state while controlling for median income and urbanization. The overall model demonstrates a correlation with school aged students’ obesity rates, compliance scores, income and urbanization. However, the findings from this study suggest the most significant correlation was found between the obesity rates and median income. No significance was found between obesity in children and compliance scores or urbanization with the results can be used by communities to encourage healthy behaviors in children and raise awareness of activities aimed at reducing obesity in children who live in low income families in the United States