Mount Sinai study shows economic health disparities in preschool children

NEW YORK - Mount Sinai researchers released a study this week showing how socioeconomic status and access to resources may lead to different health outcomes for young children.

Eleven-year-old Chloe Charleston chooses water over soda just about any time you ask. Her mother, Dorothy Grant, is grateful she is growing into a strong young lady, both physically and emotionally.

"She's not obese," Grant said. "She's slim, and she's at the average weight and height that she needs to be at her age."

The family credits some of their lifestyle changes to lessons they learned when Chloe was much younger.

From 2015-2018, Mount Sinai studied nearly 4,000 preschool students in three communities: Harlem; Bogota, Columbia; and Madrid, Spain, where Dr. Valentin Fuster's popularity turned him into a character on their version of Sesame Street.

"We teach how the body works, exercise, appropriate nutrition and how to control the emotions," explained Fuster, who also serves as president of Mount Sinai Heart.

Fuster's team measured knowledge, attitude and habits while noting socioeconomic status. Their findings were released this week in the Journal of American College of Cardiology.

"Depending on the economics and the education in different regions, the results in terms of teaching health at this young age is different," Fuster said, "but in all of them, there was an improvement compared with doing nothing."

He admitted even when the children received the extra education, lower income students still fell behind their peers.

"The lower economy kids are more confronted with poor diets, and this is when they are with the family," Fuster said.

By involving parents in the project, the whole household learned how to save money while making smarter choices. Grant keeps fresh apples and tangerines for her kids and now enjoys cooking with more vegetables.

The researchers continue to track kids like Chloe to gather long-term data on their growth.

"They said don't eat too much junk food because then you'll get sick," Chloe remembered. "That's the truth, because one time I didn't eat any healthy things. The whole week I was sick!"

Fuster said they are now learning the importance of intervention at multiple points during development.

"Of all the subjects that are being just presented to these children to learn, I would put health as one of the highest priorities," Fuster emphasized.

Mount Sinai now hosts health education in preschools across two boroughs and the team plans to expand to the entire city, backed by these results.

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