Discussion Childhood obesity has become a growing epidemic shown to have numerous negative consequences on children’s quality of health. This multisystem disorder has increased medical comorbidities associated with excess weight, such as type-2-diabetes, hypertension, metabolic syndrome, and negative psychosocial ramifications impacting children’s well-being and compromising school attendance. The literature has demonstrated childhood obesity does have a significant impact on school absenteeism; thus, this research can help argue why LAPUSD revenue may have increased. In this research, students’ FITNESSGRAM® scores on weight status and aerobic capacity was an important independent variable to measure and define childhood obesity in the LAPUSD. The research findings indicated that weight status alone had no significance on days absent during the two school years of 2011-2012 and 2012-2013. However, during the school year of 2011-2012, both interactions between students’ weight status and aerobic capacity scores and between aerobic capacity and gender had a significant impact on days absent from school. …show more content…
Extraneous variables such as, children’s motivation levels and environmental conditions may have influenced the physical fitness test. Furthermore, the type of available physical education program may have impacted students’ scores. This research did not investigate the physical education (P.E.) program at the LAPUSD, nor did it investigate how often students for each school year received P.E., or if they received at least 50 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity