Childhood Obesity

Childhood Obesity

Chart 2 Prevalence and Trends… (JAMA Network)

Chart 2 Prevalence and Trends… (JAMA Network)

Obesity is a national problem that impacts many levels of our society, from how our tax dollars are spent on national initiatives (like the USDA's National School Lunch Program) to how we cope with the costs of healthcare from weight related problems. While the number of obese adults is increasing each year, a more alarming trend is the rise in obese children. As you can see from the chart below the increase from 1980 to 2004 is huge. The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has found that about one-third of U.S. children have a BMI that places them in the 85th percentile or above -- that includes over 25 million children (Basics About Childhood Obesity). Unlike most adults, children have less weight in many of the decisions that lead towards their condition, like the family grocery list. Children are also more susceptible to outside influences like television advertising which generally lead to less nutritious choices in food when they do have that opportunity to choose. Childhood obesity is an epidemic which must be understood before it can be stopped. The following discussion will provide an understanding of childhood obesity by defining or measuring it, by looking at the risks it poses, and by seeing what causes it.

The first step in understanding obesity is defining it. Traditionally, the National Center for Health Statistics developed a series of charts which compared height and weight of children at various ages with one 'ideal' measurement for all children to compare to. These charts were flawed in many ways, including that they were set with statistics from predominantly white children (Ace, Lyles, and Stanton 16). A new set of growth charts was created in 2000 from the CDC with a new value to measure against – the Body-Mass Index (BMI). The BMI is a single number calculated from an...