Childhood Obesity May Be Leveling Off (HealthDay)

TUESDAY, May 27 (HealthDay News) -- In what may be the firstgood news in the battle against obesity among America's children, federalresearchers report that the latest data suggest that the number ofoverweight kids may be leveling off.

However, experts caution there's still much to be done to improve thehealth of American children because the number of youngsters who areoverweight today is still triple what it was in the 1960s and 1970s.

"The rates are still very high. But this study suggests there may besome cause for optimism as the rate appears fairly level over eightyears," said study author Cynthia Ogden, an epidemiologist at the NationalCenter for Health Statistics, whose findings are published in the May 28issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Others agreed with Ogden's assessment.

"After 25 years of extraordinarily bad news about childhood obesity,there is a glimmer of hope. But it's much too soon to know whether rateshave truly leveled off," said the author of an accompanying editorial inthe same issue of the journal, Dr. David Ludwig, director of the OptimalWeight for Life program at Children's Hospital Boston.

"Even if they have leveled off, the prevalence is at such high levelsthat unless we do something, unless we redouble our efforts, thisgeneration is in store for a shorter and less healthful life than theirparents," Ludwig said.

Using height and weight data from the U.S. National Health andNutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), the researchers calculated thebody-mass index (BMI) for 8,165 American children between the ages of 2and 19. The data used for the study was collected in 2003-04 and again in2005-06.

The researchers found no statistical difference between the two timeperiods, and so combined them into one. Between 2003 and 2006, 31.9percent of American children had a BMI higher than the 85th percentile fortheir gender and age. A BMI above the 85th percentile means a child is atrisk of being overweight.

Slightly more than 16 percent of the children had a BMI at or above the95th percentile, indicating they were overweight. And 11.3 percent had aBMI at or above the 97th percentile, indicating these kids weresignificantly overweight.

When the researchers compared this data to data from as far back as1999, they found no statistically significant differences in theprevalence of overweight children.

The researchers did find that Mexican-American girls and boys, as wellas non-Hispanic black girls, were more likely to have a high BMI thannon-Hispanic whites. But Ogden said that, although these levels stillremained high, they also appeared to have leveled off.

The study didn't look at factors that might be contributing to thetrend, according to Ogden.

Ludwig said the numbers may have something to do with all the attentionthat has been paid to the problem of childhood obesity. But, he added,there still needs to be much more focus given to the problem at a nationallevel.

"We need a comprehensive national strategy. We need to regulate junkfood ads to kids, we need better school lunch funding, better funding forregular physical education in schools and after-school activities, and weneed improved insurance reimbursement for obesity prevention and treatmentservices," he said.

"It's much too soon to tell if there's a true plateau or if this isjust a temporary lull. Without major declines in prevalence, the healthtoll will continue to mount," Ludwig said.

More information

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