A recent study conducted by Pennsylvania researchers revealed that 59 of the 200 children’s hospitals surveyed hosted on-site fast-food restaurants (e.g., McDonald’s). Fifty-six percent of the adult survey participants and their children who were outpatients at a hospital with an on-site fast-food restaurant ate fast food the day of the survey.
It is common knowledge that America’s love of fast food is fueling obesity and related diseases in our youth. So why have a McDonald restaurant at the hospital? What message are these hospitals trying to communicate by allowing McDonald’s to be on-site? Or maybe they just aren’t thinking.