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Has the obesity epidemic leveled off in US children? What do recent data tell us?
Author(s) -
Wang Youfa,
Beydoun May,
Caballero Benjamin
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.24.1_supplement.95.6
Subject(s) - national health and nutrition examination survey , obesity , overweight , youth risk behavior survey , medicine , demography , environmental health , population , public health , childhood obesity , survey data collection , gerontology , ethnic group , injury prevention , poison control , political science , statistics , nursing , mathematics , sociology , law
Recent data suggest that childhood obesity has leveled off in the US. This is encouraging, though problematic if inaccurate. To address this important but complicated public health problem, we systematically examined recent trends in obesity and various adiposity measures and energy balance‐related behaviors in US children using published findings and analysis of recent nationally representative data from National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) and Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS). We found complex patterns in adiposity measures and across population groups. Results also varied by dataset and data analysis method. In general, obesity/overweight rates have increased during 1988–2008 and since 1999 in various US children sex‐, age‐, and ethnic groups using NHANES. In 1988–94, 1999–04, and 2005–08, obesity (%) in boys aged 2–19 y was 11.7, 15.9, 18.4; in girls, 11.2, 14.2, 16.7. There are signs of a plateau in the prevalence in recent years for some groups. YRBS showed obesity (%) was 10.7 in 1999, 10.5 in 2001, 13.1 in 2005–07. The data did not show material improvements in US young people's diet and physical activity in recent years. At least some observed plateau in obesity observed in recent NHANES is due to sampling and analysis issues and short survey periods. More data are needed to monitor the trends. Vigorous effort still urgently needs to promote healthy lifestyle to fight obesity epidemic.