The Role Of Childhood Obesity In The United States

Childhood obesity is defined as being at or above the 95th percentile on the 2000 body mass index for age and gender growth charts of the Center for Disease Control (CDC). There is an increase in childhood and adolescent obesity in the United States of America and worldwide as well. The incidence of childhood obesity has more than doubled in children 2-5 years of age and 12-19 years of age and more than tripled in children 6-11 years of age (Ogden et al., 2002). According to the International Obesity Task Force, as of 2007, there were 1.7 million overweight adults worldwide, 312 million were classified obese. At least 155 million children were classified as overweight or obese worldwide in 2007 (Hossain et al., 2007). The majority of overweight or obese children live in developing countries, where the rate of increase has been more than 30% higher than that of developed countries. If this continues, the number of overweight or obese infants and young children globally will increase to 70 million by 2025 (WHO). …show more content…
It is estimated that more than 45% of the non-Hispanic black population is obese – compared with approximately 30% of non-Hispanic whites – and the highest prevalence is observed among African-American women. Due to the epidemic of obesity among children, policy makers in the U.S. were forced to rank obesity as a critical public health threat for the 21st century (DHHS, 2001). Members of low socio-economic groups, especially African-American, Hispanics and American Indians, are unreasonably affected (Ogden et al.,