Child Obesity, an Alarming Trend in American Society

Description: Obesity in children has become a major problem in the United States
with larger numbers of children and adolescents becoming obese every year. Obesity is when a person has an excessive accumulation of body fat. According to "kidsource online" obesity occurs when the total body weight is more than 25% fat in boys and 32% fat for girls. There are many factors relating to obesity and several damaging side affects which will be discussed in this impact report. (1)

What age range does obesity impact? Unfortunately, obesity seems to impact children of all ages, but recent studies have shown that there has been a 45% increase in the prevalence of obesity among 6-11 year olds. (1)

Who does obesity impact the most? Children at greatest risk are ones who have two parents who are obese. This occurs due to genetic factors and poor modeled behaviors (dietary and physical). This also affects children who are inactive. A recent study showed that children who lived with single mothers were significantly more likely to become obese by the age of 6 as were African Americans, low income families and children who grow up in lower cognitive stimulated environments. 50% of all Hispanic-American and African-American Women are overweight (2)

How many kids are affected? There are nearly twice as many overweight children and almost three times as many overweight adolescents as there were in 1980, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. According to their findings from 1999-2000 data, 15 percent of youth ages 6 to 19 — almost 9 million — are overweight in the United States. (3)