Waistlines of US kids seem to be holding steady, New Study

After rising steadily for more than 10 years, the proportion of U.S. kids defined as obese due to a large waist circumference held steady between 2003 and 2012, according to a new analysis of national data.

The authors of the study noted that increased efforts at improving children’s nutrition and physical activity levels remain necessary.

The study, led by Bo Xi, MD, of the Departments of Epidemiology and Health Statistics of Shandong University in China, looked at changes in the amount of abdominal fat in US kids since 2004.

The researchers analyzed data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) conducted in five times from 2003 through 2012.

These surveys included information collected from 16,601 total US children, aged 2 to 18.

The researchers specifically calculated how many children had abdominal obesity.

Abdominal obesity was defined as having a waist circumference exceeding the 90th percentile for children’s age and sex and/or having a waist-to-height ratio of at least 0.5.

The researchers found that 18 percent of children and teens in 2011-2012 had abdominal obesity based on their waist circumference.

Yet about a third (33 percent) of those aged 6 to 18 had abdominal obesity in 2011-2012 based on their waist-to-height ratio.

Overall, however, the average waist circumference and waist-to-height ratio of children and teens between 2003-2004 and 2011-2012 has remained relatively constant.

This finding has remained true across age, sex and races/ethnicities with one exception: abdominal obesity among children aged 2 to 5 has begun to decrease.

“However,” the researchers wrote, “the prevalence of abdominal obesity is high; therefore, appropriate dietary intake and physical activity should be further emphasized to combat the obesity epidemics.”

Agencies/Canadajournal