CNN<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite national school and community-based efforts to promote healthy behaviors at a young age, childhood obesity is becoming more common in the United States, a recent study found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The research, published Tuesday in the journal Pediatrics, followed two nationally representative groups of children from kindergarten to fifth grade \u2013 around ages 6 to 11. The first group was studied from 1998 to 2004, and the second group was studied from 2010 to 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The difference between the two groups was striking: Around 16.2% of children who did not have weight issues when they entered kindergarten in 2010 were obese by the end of fifth grade, compared with 15.5% of participants in the same BMI category who started in 1998. Additionally, children studied in 2010 became obese at younger ages than their predecessors in the 1998 group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In both groups, children who were overweight during their preschool years had a significantly higher risk of obesity than their peers who were not, researchers found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOnce you get on that train towards elevated weight gain, it\u2019s really hard to turn it around, so prevention of overweight and obesity really early on are so important,\u201d said Solveig Argeseanu Cunningham, first author of the study and associate professor of global health and epidemiology at Emory University in Atlanta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Obesity occurs when a person has excessive fat accumulation that presents a health risk, according to the World Health Organization. Adults who have a body mass index (BMI) \u2013 a calculation based on one\u2019s height and weight \u2013 over 30 are considered obese. Childhood obesity is measured not by exact BMI, but by comparison to other children of the same age and sex. Those who are in the 95th percentile of BMI for their age and sex are considered obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Obesity is a major underlying risk factor for many illnesses, including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, certain cancers and severe cases of Covid-19, according to the Mayo Clinic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWithout intervention, we will continue to see increasing prevalence and severity of obesity for children at a younger age, which has really negative consequences down the line, not just for these children, but also for their future offspring,\u201d said Dr. Jennifer Woo Baidal, director of the Pediatric Obesity Initiative at Columbia University in New York City. She was not involved in the study.
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Childhood obesity risk factors<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Socioeconomic status was not a strong predictor of childhood obesity, according to the study.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat was unexpected because we\u2019ve generally seen kids from wealthier households be more protected from a lot of health issues, especially obesity,\u201d Cunningham said. \u201cThis really highlighted for me that obesity affects everybody across socioeconomic status.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Experts believe that lowering rates of childhood obesity may come down to public policy, such as improving school nutrition packages and expanding the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThose types of policy changes, there\u2019s some evidence that they reduce food insecurity, improve nutrition, and can improve child weight outcomes together in an equitable way,\u201d Baidal said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, since socioeconomic status was not a major predictor of childhood obesity, policy changes may not be enough on their own, Narayan said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOther countries keep large registries and databases, where they can have this timely surveillance of what is happening over time with individuals,\u201d Baidal said. \u201cIt\u2019s just another sign of the lack of investment in child health and (obesity) prevention in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Home interventions for childhood obesity<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Traditional methods of weight management, such as strict diets, don\u2019t always work and can sometimes be unhealthy, Cunningham added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is no single recommended prevention or intervention method for childhood obesity. The most useful thing parents and caregivers can do is speak to their child\u2019s pediatrician, Baidal said. \u201cWhat the literature is showing is that the most effective treatment involves family based behavioral treatments, where we\u2019re teaching families about behavioral strategies to help change the home environment,\u201d said Dr. Kyung Rhee, professor of pediatrics at UC San Diego, who was not involved in the study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It can be helpful for parents and caregivers to emphasize the importance of these habits for the whole family, so that the child does not feel shame or blame for their weight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While obesity can be a predictor of health issues, emphasizing weight loss is not always a helpful solution, said Rhee, who works with patients who have eating disorders and those with childhood obesity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cReframe the whole thing in terms of healthier lifestyles and healthier environments,\u201d Narayan said. \u201cIt\u2019s better to talk about eating healthy, adequate physical activity for children, adequate play environments, safer play environments, particularly in poorer socioeconomic neighborhoods.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" CNN Despite national school and community-based efforts to promote healthy behaviors at a young age, childhood obesity is becoming more common in the United States, a recent study found. The research, published Tuesday in the journal Pediatrics, followed two nationally…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t
Since the study looked at children prior to the spread of Covid-19, it doesn\u2019t account for the pandemic\u2019s effects on childhood obesity. However, some doctors suspect that rates have continued to increase, especially among children of color.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Children of color, particularly Black and Hispanic children, were at the greatest risk of developing childhood obesity, according to the study. Non-Hispanic Black children who were not overweight when they entered kindergarten in 2010 were 29% more likely to develop obesity by fifth grade than their counterparts who started in 1998.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since the study only followed children until fifth grade, researchers are uncertain how socioeconomic status and race affected rates of obesity once the participants entered sixth grade and beyond. However, based on previous studies on adult obesity, it is likely that children of lower socioeconomic status would have greater rates of adult obesity, said Dr. Venkat Narayan, a senior author of the study and the executive director of the Global Diabetes Research Center at Emory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLack of access to healthy foods, lack of access to physical activity, higher unemployment, all of those factors can collaborate to increase the risk of diseases like obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease,\u201d Narayan said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An issue of public health<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since 2010, numerous public health efforts have been implemented to reduce rates of childhood obesity, including Michelle Obama\u2019s Let\u2019s Move campaign and the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. Despite these efforts, rates of childhood obesity have increased, a sign that these actions may not be as beneficial as people assume, Cunningham said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More organized research is needed to find the factors leading to increased rates and earlier onsets of childhood obesity, as well as finding strategies to effectively prevent obesity from becoming more \u201csevere,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Teaching healthy habits \u2013 including physical activity, nutrition, good sleep and reducing stress \u2013 is another way parents and caregivers can work toward decreasing childhood obesity, she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n