Epidemiology of childhood obesity

[1] If the trend continues at the same rate as seen after the year 2000, it could have been expected that there would be more children with obesity than moderate or severe undernutrition in 2022.

[4] Between the early 1970s and late 1990s, prevalence of childhood obesity doubled or tripled in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Japan, the UK, and the USA.

[4] A 2010 article from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition analyzed global prevalence from 144 countries in preschool children (less than 5 years old).

[7] Prevalence has remained high over the past three decades across most age, sex, racial/ethnic, and socioeconomic groups, and represents a three-fold increase from one generation ago and is expected to continue rising.

[11] From 2003 to 2007, there was a twofold increase in states reporting prevalence of pediatric obesity greater than or equal to 18%.7 Oregon was the only state showing decline from 2003 to 2007 (decline by 32%), and using children in Oregon as a reference group, obesity in children in Illinois, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, Georgia, and Kansas has doubled.

[7] A 2010 NCHS Data Brief published by the CDC found interesting trends in prevalence of childhood obesity.

[13] “In fact, the relationship does not appear to be consistent; among Mexican-American girls, although the difference is not significant, 21.0% of those living at or above 350% of the poverty level are obese compared with 16.2% of those living below 130% of the poverty level.” [13] Additional findings also include that the majority of children and adolescents are not low income children.

Similarly, identifying the incidence of childhood obesity within a respective race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status, can also help delineate other areas of intervention opportunities for certain populations.