The effort is part of a multi-faceted education and awareness “High Five for Health” campaign that includes animated videos, social media graphics, message points and materials to be distributed at sporting events, youth organizations and various other locations. All campaign materials are available for free download at
HighFiveForHealth.org.
Chandler said the campaign is designed to help parents find no-cost or low-cost activities that the whole family can do together, and activities that older children may do independently.
The campaign focuses on five key areas to promote health, including prioritizing physical activity; practicing healthy eating; monitoring chronic conditions such as asthma, obesity and diabetes; staying up to date on vaccinations; and managing stress and emotions.
The
campaign website offers tips on each of these focus areas, including ways to prioritize physical activity and how to know if children are meeting the level of aerobic activity needed to make a difference. It also offers some healthy recipes and recommendations for how many fruits and vegetables a child should eat each day. In addition, it offers suggestions for how to help your child learn how to manage stress.
Many of Kentucky’s youth are sedentary. The latest Youth Risk Behavior Survey taken in 2019 found that 19 percent of Kentucky’s high school students said they did not participate in at least 60 minutes of physical activity on at least one day in the week before they took the survey and 81% of them said they were not physically active at least 60 minutes per day on all seven days.
Jim Tackett, the education department’s healthy-school project director, encouraged Kentucky parents and youth to have fun as they incorporate some of these new healthy behaviors into their lives, but to also be intentional about it. He also encouraged parents and youth to be open to trying new things and to celebrate small successes.
“Good health just doesn’t happen by itself,” Tackett said, adding later, “Each of our behaviors takes a little time to mold or to break. So over the summer months, we’re hoping that the High Five for Health campaign will help us establish some new behaviors that we can carry with us down the road.”
Asked about the relationship between high screen time and low physical activity, Tackett recognized that this is an issue, but said this particular campaign largely addresses components suggested by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which funded a large portion of it.
He said reducing screen time would not only lead to increased physical activity, but also impact the mental health piece of this campaign.
“We would definitely support trying to take a break from those electronic devices,” he said. “While they are necessary in the learning process today, we would like to strike that balance if at all possible. . . . I think there is a happy medium that we need to continually talk about.”
A recent
University of Southern Denmark study,
published in
JAMA Pediatrics, found that children in the group that had their smartphones and tablets removed for two weeks and reduced their recreational screen media use to less than three hours per week had an average of 45 minutes more daily physical activity compared to children in the control group, which did not change their usual screen habits.
“The difference between the groups were largest on weekend days where children in the screen reduction group had an average of 73 min more physical activity compared to children in the control group,” lead author Jesper Pedersen said in the news release.
In addition to making sure your child is up to date with their recommended schedule of vaccines, the campaign also encourages parents get their children who are five an older vaccinated against the coronavirus. To support this effort, the sponsors are offering a Covid-19 vaccine clinic in Lexington.
In partnership with the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services and other health organizations, Chandler said the foundation and the education department will host Covid-19 vaccine clinics for youth five and older on June 3-4 and June 10-11 in Lexington, weekends when the Kentucky High School Athletics Association hosts the state boys and girls track, baseball and softball tournaments. They vaccines will be available in the green lot at Kroger Field.
About 80% of the campaign is funded by the CDC and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.