About 15 per cent of children in Hong Kong are overweight because they have poor diets and habits, a study has found.
The figure in 1993 was 10 per cent, according to figures provided by Rita Sung Yn-tz, a professor in the department of paediatrics at Chinese University. She says children increasingly eat at restaurants, skip breakfast and sleep late, which all contribute to weight gain.
Professor Sung and other researchers conducted the study in the 2005-6 academic year, measuring the weight, height, and waists of 14,842 students aged six to 18 at 36 schools.
A child was defined as overweight if the ratio of their height to weight was 20 per cent above the median.
"Obesity has been going up for some time now," said Terry Ting Ho-yan, president of the Hong Kong Nutrition Association.
He said Hongkongers were not very knowledgeable about nutrition and as they grew wealthier bought more food for their children. Adding to the problem, youngsters did not exercise as much as they did in the 1970s and 1980s, and had convenient forms of transport to save them the effort of walking, he said.
Official figures tell a similar story. The proportion of overweight children had risen from 17.8 per cent to 18.9 per cent over the past three academic years, according to figures from the Department of Health's Student Health Service. In 1995-6, the figure was 16.1 per cent.
Overweight children were more likely to have - or develop in later life - obstructive sleep apnoea, a fatty liver and cardiovascular diseases, said Albert Li Man-chim, a professor in the department of paediatrics who contributed to the study. They had double the chance of developing diabetes and were 10 times more likely to have sleep problems, he said.
To give educators an easier way of finding out whether children are obese, the researchers devised a tape that measures obesity by waist circumference. If a child's waist circumference is thicker than 95 per cent of the circumferences recorded for their age group in the study, they are considered obese. The university produced 5,000 tapes and will distribute them to schools.
They chose that measurement because it was good for indicating health risk factors, and a tape was more convenient than using body mass indexes or going to public health centres for assessments, Professor Sung said.
Discussion topic:
In view of the problem of the increase in obese children in Hong Kong, there are voices suggesting more emphasis should be put on physical education. One suggestion is to increase the amount of P.E. lessons. Do you think it is acceptable to have more P.E. lessons for students in Hong Kong?
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8 comments:
It is not acceptable to have more P.E. lessons for students in Hong Kong since there is not enough spare time for school to increase one more lesson during the school period. Should the students have more P.E. lessons, it will short the pupils’ time on studying and communication of families, classmates and friends. Lower the link between person to person, destruction of the social unity and greater pressure for students exists.
For the new syllabus on education, it is simple for school and Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority add the physical education into the other study experience, which is 15% of the school lessons, instead of increase P.E. lessons. Let each of the pupils finds the interest of having exercise is better than compel the pupil to have the fixed P.E. lessons. This also fit the sustainable idea and prevents the increase of obese child and adult in the following future. So then, it is not necessary having more P.E. lessons.
However, we should face on the other main cause of increase in obese children: the changes of their life style. Worrying their child not grow up, the parents over buy different kinds of food to them. One of the results is child can eat at anytime and they usually choose foodstuffs or snacks include high sugar and fat, cause of overweight. In summary, change the eating habits is as important as doing exercise.
7A2 Shadow
It 's popular tend among to increase the P.E. lessons is a hot topis of hot debute.While most peeople think that it should,some people think that it should not.In my view, I think that it is acceptable to have more P.E. lessons for students in Hong Kong.
No one denies the fact that Hk is becoming a materialistic city.the students in HongKong have high material confarts and do less exercise.You know what?When you walk on the street,You can see many students are playing their PSP or NDS. They spend the time on the material.How can they have time to do exercise?
Someone may argue that the students have many lessons and thet will be Diverted by the P.E lesson.Neverthless,a suitable exercise can help students for study.There are many reseach for which the exercise can help students in study.There is no comparision between the study without exercise and the study with exercise.
To conclude, more P.E. lessons can help students in study and health.It will be good for student but no harm to them.
I have experienced both single-lesson P.E. lesson and double-lesson P.E. lesson in NMC and my previous school. Although the style of the lesson are not totally same, I would rather choose a shorter period for P.E. lesson than the longer one. It is not because I am fat; there are several reasons for me to make such decision.
Although students, especially boys like to have sports like basketball, football, tennis, etc, but they tend to have these activities during recess or after school. In my observation, most students (include me) would rather choose sitting on a bench to chat with classmates than playing sports during P.E. lesson. I can’t explain this phenomenon at all.
Other than that, having a double lessons with students forced to do sports didn’t work at all. Although students may feel interested in the first half hour, they would lose their interest afterwards when the time goes on. It may also lead to the problem I had mentioned in the second paragraph. Someone may even try to pretend sick in order to have time for studying or resting.
I think it is more important for EDB to figure out a standard style of P.E. lesson which could draw the attention of students rather than arguing ho much time should the P.E. lesson last. For example, having competitions in different sports during P.E. lessons which winners could have better grade (or conduct if you can relate them) may improve the quality of P.E. lessons. Students would request for a longer time if they think P.E. lessons are interesting.
Dear Shadow,
There are some errors found:
1. "it will short the pupils'" -> it will shorten the
2. "communication of" -> communication with
3. "lower the link between person to person" -> worsen interpersonal relationship
I think the reasons that you came up with are abundant. However, it's not a good idea to put something to an extreme. For example, it is not really convincing to say that having more P.E. lessons will worsen interpersonal relationship. Just sit back and think about this argument, is it reasonable? So, try to take a more moderate argument, and it can convince others more easily.
If you want, we can discuss together later.
Mr. Fu
Deear Kochunman,
There are some errors:
1. popular tend -> popular trend
2. debute -> debate
3. confart -> comforts
I think the arguments you have show that you are an observant person and can make use of them as your arguments. However, you should be careful with your spelling because it can give others a bad impression.
Mr. Fu
Dear Teddy,
It's great to see your second post. It's inspiring to see that you can make use of your personal experience as the introduction. This way of introduction can draw readers' attention into reading your essay. Also, the suggestions you made are practical because you have actually experienced all this first hand. Also, I'm sure you have gained a lot after attending NMC's PE lessons. They are so worthwhile. Do you think so?
Mr. Fu
Yeah Mr. fu, but it was a bit too tiring and i had caught a cold after i had the P.E. lesson with my classmates.
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