New Report Weighs In on Obesity in Ventura County

Ventura County’s children are much fatter than previous generations, putting them at risk for diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease, according to a new report that says the cost for treating them and overweight adults could reach into the billions.

The trend mirrors state and national numbers indicating that childhood obesity is on the rise, driven by poor nutrition, inactivity and an abundance of cheap and convenient fast food, warns the report titled “Growing up in Ventura County.”

And it’s not just health that is affected, according to county experts in nutrition, education and social services. Poor eating habits also affect academic performance, said Debbie Golden, a member of the Ventura Unified School District’s Board of Trustees.

“Children cannot learn if they come to school after eating a bag of hot Cheetos washed down with a 32-ounce soda,” Golden said during a news conference Wednesday at a public health center in Oxnard.

Childhood fitness was one of three areas of focus in the 30-page report. The others looked at the effects of homelessness and substance abuse on the county’s children.

The findings were released by the Community Commission for Ventura County, a multi-agency group that tracks challenges facing local families and makes recommendations for addressing them.

The members are representatives from cities, schools, nonprofit groups and county government. Ventura County Supervisor Kathy Long, a commission co-chair, urged local governments to consider the report when setting budgetary priorities.

“This does not go on a shelf,” Long said. “This will go to cities, to the Board of Supervisors and other agencies to get our community to help us.

“We need to help parents make a difference in the lives of their children,” she said.

The commission culled recent data from a number of sources. Though Ventura County fares better than the state on many indicators of health, there are still “pockets of need” in poverty-stricken areas, the report says.

Median family income was $75,500 in 2004, compared with a state median of $58,000.

The poverty rate is below 8% in the upper-income cities of Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Moorpark and Camarillo, the report says. But it is 19% in Port Hueneme, 16% in Ventura and 15% in Santa Paula and Oxnard. Latino immigrants make up much of the county’s poor, the data show.

Poverty plays a distressingly pivotal role in many of the problems investigated by the commission, officials said.

Homelessness is on the rise, largely because poor families are finding it increasingly difficult to find affordable housing or rentals. In 1997, 14% of the shelter population were women; this year women made up 31% and children 22%.

Alcohol and drug use is common among high-school-age youth, and a majority of neglected children are in poor families in which the parents drink and use drugs, the study found.

The newest challenge facing families, though, is childhood obesity. In Ventura County, 29% of students in grades 5, 7 and 9 were overweight in 2005.

Overweight is defined as children and teens whose weight and height is above the 95th percentile of all children for their age. The standards date from the 1960s when only 5% of children were considered overweight.

Ventura County adults are even fatter, with 51% exceeding current standards for normal weight. Males pack on pounds at higher percentages than females, the study shows.

The report recommends programs that encourage families to eat more healthfully and calls for less fast-food advertising. Homeless families should be given preference on waiting lists for public housing and have access to more transitional shelter beds, it advises.

Claudia Harrison, executive director of First 5 Ventura County, said her group has set aside funding for the challenges set forth in the report. For the next three to five years, it will spend $75,000 annually on obesity-awareness programs and $300,000 to help children exposed prenatally to substance abuse, she said.

First 5, funded by voter-approved tobacco taxes, receives about $10 million annually to support early childhood programs in Ventura County.

Harrison said the report would help her board set future funding priorities.

“Ventura County is a great place to be,” she said. “But too many families still face challenges.”

catherine.saillant@latimes.com