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Maternal & Child Health > Needs Assessment > Overweight and Obesity in Children and Adolescents Fact Sheet Overweight and Obesity in Children and Adolescents Fact Sheet

Healthy People 2010 Goal:

  • To reduce the proportion of children and adolescents who are overweight or obese to 5%.

Consequences:

  • Obesity-related diseases such as type 2 diabetes, asthma and hypertension once were considered adult conditions only. Obese children also may experience psychological stress.
  • Overweight and obesity acquired during childhood or adolescence may persist into adulthood and increase the risk for some chronic diseases later in life.

Causes:

  • Lack of physical activity, sedentary behavior, over consumption of high-calorie foods, some eating patterns such as eating when not hungry, eating while doing homework or while watching TV, environmental factors such as lack of recreational facilities, low family incomes and non-working parents, and genetics (a greater risk of obesity has been found in children of obese and overweight parents).

Prevalence in Indiana:

  • Indiana has a smaller percent of children less than 5 years old that are overweight compared to children nationwide. However, overweightedness is on the rise (See table).
  • Hispanic and American Indian children were more overweight when compared with blacks and whites (See table).
  • In 2002, 24.6% and 12.1% of the young adults (18-24yrs) were overweight and obese respectively. (2002 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System).
  • In 2003, 11.5% of Indiana high school students stated they were overweight, and 14.2% of the high school students indicated they were at risk of becoming overweight (national rates for the same were 13.5% and 15.4% respectively). (2003 Youth Risk Behavior Survey [YRBS]).
  • In 2003, 32% of Indiana high school students described themselves as overweight, 46.7% percent were trying to lose weight, and 4.8% vomited or took laxatives to lose weight or to keep from gaining weight (national rates for the same were 29.6%, 43.8% and 6%, respectively) (2003 YRBS).

Trends Towards Healthy People 2010 Goal:

  • Between 1999 and 2002, the percentage of overweight among children increased for all races.
  • Indiana is unlikely to reach the Healthy People 2010 Goal of reducing the proportion of children who are overweight to 5%.

Trend in Prevalence of overweight among children less than 5 years of age, 1999 through 2002: Indiana

1999 %

2000

%  

2001

%

2002

%

2003

%

2003

% Nationwide

White

9.19

10.35

9.87

10.21

10.76

11.49

Black

9.14

10.74

10.55

10.84

11.25

11.95

Hispanic

13.82

14.90

13.79

14.27

15.05

16.95

American Indian

11.38

16.67

20.26

8.18

14.56

17.36

Asian

5.37

8.69

6.71

7.55

6.84

12.12

Total

9.56

10.92

10.54

10.91

11.53

13.46

Source: 2003. Pediatric Nutrition Surveillance System, Centers for Disease Control.

Notes: 95th percentile weight-for-length or BMI-for-age, CDC Growth Charts, 2000. Five percent of children are expected to fall above the 95th percentile.