Contact: Phil Hearn
Mississippi State researchers are recording the fitness levels of several hundred Starkville elementary school students this week in an effort to focus attention on sedentary lifestyles and increasing obesity rates among the nation's youth.
Beginning today [Oct. 10] and concluding Friday [the 14th], university kinesiology majors under the direction of assistant professor Paul Rukavina are testing approximately 500 fourth and fifth graders at Ward-Stewart Elementary School. They are working 8 a.m.-2:30 p.m. each day, except for Wednesday afternoon.
Rukavina is graduate coordinator of the department's teaching-coaching concentration.
"Our project is important because Mississippi has the highest prevalence of obesity in the United States," Rukavina said of the annual fitness project now in its second year. "It is an example of how the university reaches out with the community to achieve public health initiatives."
For more information, contact him at (662) 325-7231 or (cell) 312-5003, or prukavina@colled.msstate.edu.