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More Than 1 in 7 Kindergartners Are Obese Study Finds
The proportion of American children who are at a healthy weight when they start kindergarten is declining, according to a new study. By Lisa RapaportJuly 12, 2022Fact-CheckedResearchers examined data on children who were followed from kindergarten through fifth grade.Adobe StockA growing number of American children are putting on excess weight at very young ages, a new study has found. In 1998, 72.9 percent of kids entered kindergarten at a healthy weight, based on their body mass index (BMI), while 15.1 percent were overweight and 12 percent were obese. More than a decade later, the proportion of kids who were overweight when they entered kindergarten was essentially unchanged. But the proportion of obese kindergartners climbed to 15.3 percent, and the proportion of kids with a healthy BMI declined to 69 percent, according to the study results, published July 5 in Pediatrics. “These worrying data indicate that the childhood obesity epidemic in the United States continues to grow and get more serious,” said the senior study author, K.M. Venkat Narayan, MD, of Emory University in Atlanta, in a statement. For the study, researchers examined data on two cohorts of children who were followed from kindergarten through fifth grade; one group entered kindergarten in 1998 and the other group started in 2010. During the study period, obesity became more common among elementary school children and started developing at younger ages, the analysis found. Researchers identified children with obesity based on BMI. Unlike for adults, BMI for children is based on how their weight compares with other kids of the same sex and age. Kids are considered obese when their BMI is in the 95th percentile or greater, meaning it’s higher than that of 95 percent of other kids the same sex and age, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Not all children have the same risk of obesity, the study also found. Among children entering kindergarten in 1998, white kids had the lowest risk of obesity, at 13.7 percent, compared with 17.3 percent for Black children and 19.9 percent for Hispanic kids. Twelve years later, the rate of obesity at the start of kindergarten was little changed for white and Hispanic youth, but increased by 29 percent among the Black children studied. Poverty played a role. The highest obesity rates among kindergartners in 1998 were among those with lower socioeconomic status — a measure of income, occupation, and education. These kids had obesity rates of 17.7 to 18.1 percent, compared with 10.3 percent among children with the highest socioeconomic status. Obesity rates climbed most among kids in the lowest and highest socioeconomic groups, while holding steady across the study period among children in the middle. This suggests that “children of all walks of life are at risk for obesity,” the study team wrote. When researchers looked at data on newborns, they found that children with the highest birth weight — often associated with maternal obesity — had the highest rates of obesity in kindergarten in 1998, at 16.2 percent. And their risk of obesity climbed 35 percent during the study period. This cycle of obese people giving birth to children at increased risk for obesity may become harder to break if trends in childhood obesity continue, the study team noted. That’s because people who become obese during childhood and adolescence often struggle with obesity and weight management throughout adulthood. Children with obesity are at increased risk for cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, hardening of the arteries, and heart abnormalities as well as type 2 diabetes, liver disease, and musculoskeletal problems, the study team pointed out. NEWSLETTERS Sign up for our Healthy Living Newsletter
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