Despite sodas getting larger and fast-food chains constantly coming out with more conveniently delicious, fatty items, U.S. kids age 2 to 18 are not becoming more obese...at least not around the waistline.
A study looked at the proportion of obese children, measured by waist size, between 2003 and 2012 and saw that it didn't change. The researchers compared this data to previous studies measuring prevalence of abdominal obesity between 1988 and 1994, and 2003 and 2004. During these times the prevalence increased significantly. In comparison, this recent study suggests an improvement.
"Kids are not getting fatter. Abdominal obesity has been stable over the years," says Lyn Steffen, associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. Abdominal obesity is specifically a measure of the fat accumulated around the midsection using a waist-to-height ratio. Children considered to be abdominally obese have a waist circumference that exceeds the fixed limit for the given age and gender.
Some age groups are losing weight. For children between ages 2 and 5, abdominal obesity actually saw a significant decrease in prevalence. Still, researchers say, with a third of kids between ages 6 and 18 years remaining obese, the news isn't good, though it's not quite so hopeless.
Steffen believes that leveling off seen in childhood obesity is due to healthier school meals and better vending machine options, though the study did not specifically look into the reasons for this phenomenon.
High fat on this area of the body is a predictor of metabolic syndrome, high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes, Steffen says. She adds that kids who are obese or overweight tend to remain so in adulthood.
Asheley Cockrell Skinner, studying health policy, management and pediatrics at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, agrees with Steffen's sentiment of concern rather than relief.
"Recent publications tell us that overweight and obesity in general are leveling off, but the more severe forms of obesity are increasing," Skinner told Reuters Health.
She acknowledges that the study, which looked at approximately 17,000 children, raises an important issue, but argues that it does not give parents of obese children much information since it only examines one category of the condition.
The study, which analyzed information collected from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, was published in the journal Pediatrics.
Dr. David Katz, director of the Yale University Prevention Research Center, says that in addition to this study, which only looked at how many children are abdominally obese, future studies will need to look at how abdominally obese children are, and whether those measurements are changing for the better.
