{"id":39842,"date":"2015-10-27T10:56:45","date_gmt":"2015-10-27T20:56:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=39842"},"modified":"2021-06-29T14:21:15","modified_gmt":"2021-06-30T00:21:15","slug":"fighting-childhood-obesity-focus-of-school-of-medicine-partnership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2015\/10\/27\/fighting-childhood-obesity-focus-of-school-of-medicine-partnership\/","title":{"rendered":"Fighting childhood obesity focus of School of Medicine partnership"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
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A student uses the new water bottle filling station at K\u0101neʻohe<\/span> Elementary.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Students and faculty at K\u0101neʻohe<\/span> Elementary School<\/a> are drinking up the benefits of the best sugar-free beverage—water—thanks to a partnership between the University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at Mānoa John A. Burns School of Medicine<\/a> and Kaiser Permanente Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span><\/a>, one of the state’s largest health-care providers.<\/p>\n

On October 26, the Windward Oʻahu<\/span> school unveiled a water bottle filling station and presented each child with a water bottle to promote healthy beverage consumption. The project is part of a coordinated school wellness strategy led by the Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Initiative for Childhood Obesity Research and Education<\/a> (HICORE<\/abbr>), a health initiative of the School of Medicine to help reduce health disparities and childhood obesity.<\/p>\n

“Eating and drinking habits, like exercise patterns, begin in early childhood,” said May Okihiro<\/strong>, School of Medicine pediatrician and HICORE<\/abbr> director. “Drinking water regularly is essential to good health.”<\/p>\n

The filling station, unveiled at an event this morning at K\u0101neʻohe<\/span> Elementary, was attended by fourth-grade students, administrators and first lady Dawn Ige, an elementary school vice principal and longtime champion of children’s health and educational initiatives.<\/p>\n

Developing healthier habits<\/h2>\n

“Simple changes to diet and exercise can help our children develop healthy habits that will stay with them throughout their lives,” said Mary Ann Barnes, president of Kaiser Permanente Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>. “We’re happy to partner with HICORE<\/abbr> as part of our Thriving Schools initiative to improve the health of our keiki.”<\/p>\n

An estimated 25 Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> schools and 31,000 students are expected to benefit from the water bottle filling stations, supported by a $92,000 grant from Kaiser Permanente Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>, the first organization to partner with the School of Medicine to lead the Be Well at School initiative. Other partners include HMSA<\/abbr><\/a>, Kōkua Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span><\/a> and ʻOhana<\/span> Health<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Participating schools will also incorporate healthy beverage consumption as part of school wellness policies.<\/p>\n

—By Tina Shelton<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UH<\/abbr> medical school partners with Kaiser Permanente Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> to bring water bottle filling stations to Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>’s schools<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[165,31,9,56],"class_list":["post-39842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-health","tag-john-a-burns-school-of-medicine","tag-uh-manoa","tag-video-2","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t