Obesity trends apparent in 4-year-old children

Obesity at age 4 years was most prevalent in American Indian/Native Alaskan children, according to a recent cross-sectional secondary data analysis of U.S. children born in 2001.

Researchers reported that 18.4% of 4-year-olds were obese in 2005. Among American Indian/Native Alaskan children, the rate was 31.2%; among Hispanic children, 22%; non-Hispanic black children, 20.8%; non-Hispanic white children, 15.9%; and Asian children, 12.8%.

The data for the analysis were derived from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort (ECLS-B), which was designed by the National Center for Education Statistics to be a nationally representative sample of children born in 2001. The final cohort available for this analysis included data on the height and weight of 8,550 4-year-olds. The BMI was calculated from that data and children at or above the 95th percentile were defined as obese.

Some differences were noted in these data when compared with NHANES 2003-2006 data. “The ECLS-B and NHANES produce different but complementary information about the obesity epidemic in U.S. preschool children,” the researchers from The Ohio State University College of Public Health and the Center for Obesity Research and Education at Temple University in Philadelphia, reported.

They noted that about five times as many preschool children were assessed in the 2005 ECLS-B data than in the NHANES data.

“We have demonstrated that racial/ethnic disparities in obesity are apparent in U.S. children as young as 4 years. … To help arrest the trends in childhood obesity, both the Surgeon General and the Institute of Medicine have recommended that obesity-prevention efforts begin early in life. These efforts might benefit from a better understanding of how differences in obesity risk between racial/ethnic groups emerge early in the life course,” they wrote.

Anderson SE. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2009;163:344-348.