State’s residents less energetic than westerners, northerners

7th March 2011   ·   0 Comments

By Susan Buchanan
Contributing Writer

If Saturdays find you in an easy chair with a magazine — weary from the work-week — when you should be outside weeding flowerbeds, you’re not alone. New Orleans residents are less physically active in their leisure time than Americans in the West and parts of the North and Northeast, according to a study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released in mid February. But we aren’t as lethargic as people in Northeast Louisiana or Kentucky.

The CDC found that American adults were inactive for anywhere from 10.1 percent to 43 percent of their free time in 2008. Counties in the southern U.S. and parts of Appalachia were the most inert, while those in the West and the Rockies were peppiest.

Along with Louisiana, residents of Alabama, Kentucky, Mississ­ippi, Oklahoma and Tennessee were least likely to exert themselves in their leisure hours. In these states, physical inactivity rates were 29.2 percent or greater for more than 70 percent of counties and parishes, the CDC said.

In Orleans Parish, 28.1 percent of adults were physically inactive during their leisure time in 2008, the CDC found. Jefferson Parish was slightly lazier at 29 percent, with Plaquemines at 33 percent and St. Bernard at 34.4 percent. In the River Parishes, inactivity rates were 27.9 percent in St. Charles, 31.8 percent in St. James and 33.5 percent in St. John the Baptist. St. Tammany residents were comparatively energized, with an inactivity rate of 24.4 percent — the lowest in the state.

The CDC’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System used data from state-based telephone surveys of adults and 2007 census information to make its estimates. Participants were asked if they engaged in any physical activities–like walking, gardening, running and golfing–outside of their jobs. Catching Mardi Gras beads and tending to the outdoor grill weren’t included in physical activities.

But does it really matter if you spent last Sunday afternoon categorizing your parade throws on the living room floor instead of tossing a ball in the park? It does matter if being inert has become a pattern because in that case you might suffer health consequences, according to researchers. The CDC said physical activity can help control weight; reduce the risk of diabetes, heart disease and certain cancers; strengthen bones and muscles and improve mental health.

Pam Butler, manager at Touro Diabetes Center in New Orleans, said last week that being active and maintaining a healthy weight are keys to preventing diabetes. “Diabetes is part of a cluster of diseases, including obesity, high blood pressure and high cholesterol,” she noted. Since twice as many people have pre-diabetes as diabetes, prevention efforts are critical. Touro’s center focuses on diabetes education.

“We have the advantage of good weather year round here but our rates of diabetes are well above those of most northern states that are snowed in part of the year,” Butler said “Our rural areas, where people don’t have to worry about traffic and could be out walking and riding bikes, are doing poorly.”

“Greater New Orleans does poorly as well,” Butler said. “One factor is that New Orleans is a predominantly African-American city, and African Americans are a high-risk group for developing diabetes.” According to the CDC, 18.7 percent of non-Hispanic blacks aged 20 years or older nationally suffer from undiagnosed or diagnosed diabetes, versus 10.2 percent of non-Hispanic white adults.

Other factors that aren’t helping the Crescent City are driving short distances instead of walking, downing fried food with soft drinks and frequenting fast food joints. Kids are holed up indoors with video games or staring at screens.

“The consequences of inactivity in our youth are sobering,” Butler said. In 2010, the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge released a report card giving Louisiana’s children a health grade of “D,” unchanged from the two previous years. “In New Orleans and surrounding parishes, kids are developing diabetes and high blood pressure, conditions that until recently were only found in adults,” Butler said.

Butler agrees with the CDC that 150 minutes of physical activity weekly is a good health target. And she said, “it will be wonderful when NORD has all kinds of programs in place again.” In a budget presented in October 2010, Mayor Landrieu doubled funding for the New Orleans Recreation Dept. to $10 million annually. The city hopes to open a dozen, damaged municipal pools this year.

Meanwhile, one thing that the city has going for it is that people like to dance much more here than in the Midwest, where she grew up, Butler said.

Rudy Macklin, director of the Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness & Sports and a former Louisiana State University star athlete and National Basketball Association player, said “the CDC sampling was based on random phone surveys, and the results show that we as a state have much more work to do.”

Macklin said “we need to address childhood obesity in particular, and must open more parks and playgrounds in urban areas and install new playground equipment. NORD needs a lot of help, including more funding. It would be good to have more bike paths but we have much more pressing needs right now.”

“I’d like to see communities form walking clubs and start to take ownership of their own health situations,” he said. Macklin continued, saying that New Orleans public schools need to become re-involved in the statewide, Olym­pic-style fitness meets sponsored by the Governor’s Council on Fitness, after Katrina quashed participation.

“This program rewards fitness champions in seven health-related activities — 50-yard dash, the shuttle run, pull-ups, curl-ups, standing long-jump, the 600-yard run and the V-sit & reach–with the top two boys and girls from each parish sent to the state championship in Baton Rouge,” he said. Not all kids can participate in basketball, baseball, football or track and field, but they can become “fitness champions,” he noted.

Macklin said “we’d like to see everyone get involved in the Governor’s Games for anybody from age eight to 80, with over sixty Olympic-style, sporting events around the state.” Senior citizens can participate in ballroom dancing, tennis, pickle ball, run-walks, weightlifting and triathlons, he said.

As for healthy food, Macklin said if customers don’t like a supermarket practice of piling donuts and pastries near entrances and along aisles, “they should organize a group to go and talk with the store manager. That’s much more effective than one or two people complaining. Before Katrina, communities asked stores to make tobacco less visible to kids and it was effective. You need the community to pressure businesses.”

He continued, saying that farmers’ markets are being established to provide access to fresh fruit and vegetables. “With the help of partners like the Mayor’s office, students from University of New Orleans, City Council officials and members of the state legislature, new farmers’ markets will be set up in urban areas like Hardin Park in the lower Seventh Ward near St. Augustine High,” he said. The new Seventh Ward market could open this spring.

In mid-March, the state’s Living Well in Louisiana program, formerly called Lighten Up Louisi­ana, will launch an online site, providing six-month, health challenges for schools, workplaces, communities and families. The program is sponsored by the state Dept. of Health and Hospitals and the Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness & Sports. Mack­lin said “you choose your own beginning date and follow the fitness instructions. The site is a toolkit of health and wellness tips and how-to videos.”

The Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness & Sports doesn’t receive state funding but depends on bits and pieces of grants from the federal government and sponsor organizations, Macklin said. “We apply for grants like everyone else. The CDC, the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services and its Office of Minority Health have been good to us, but our budget is meager.”

Meanwhile, for anyone concerned about developing diabetes, help is available. “This is my fourth year at Touro Diabetes Center, and our patient numbers have grown every year,” Butler said. “While we need a doctor’s referral to see a patient, we also provide workshops and will schedule them for community groups, churches and senior centers if they can guarantee that people will attend.” For more information about prevention workshops, call 504-897-8813 or e-mail Dia­betes@Touro.com.

And if you’re wondering what cities we fall short of, Boulder, Colorado is ranked by the CDC as the nation’s most-active municipality — probably because everyone is off skiing or rock climbing. Other high-energy towns are Santa Fe, N.M.; Santa Cruz, Calif.; Medford, Ore., and Boise, Idaho.

This article originally published in the March 7, 2011 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.