Carn 1 Alyssa Carn Summary Paper Biology 1615 April 10, 2014

Prevalence of Obesity and Trends in Body Mass Index among US Children and Adolescents, 1999-2010
Obesity has become a great concern for children in the United States. Many children can be a subject to becoming obese in there adulthood. About 16.8 percent of children and teenagers had a BMI in the 95th percentile in 2007-2008. The increase of obesity prevalence was higher for kids and teenagers who are males, than females, from 1999-2008. Continual changes of recorded BMI helps scientists determine estimates of obesity prevalence in 2009-2010 in US infants, children, and adolescents. The reason for this study is to find better information that will tell the progression of obesity prevalence and BMI differences from 1999-2000 to 2009-2010 for people that are from 2-19 years old in the United States. This study will make it easier to compare trends from the US to other countries around the world and will be helpful in determining what the future might hold for children and adolescents. Methods they used to get results was a survey that had a lot of participants. The survey they used is called the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). It was given to children and adolescents from the years of birth to 19 years old. Part of NHANES was an interview that they did at home. Also at mobile examination centers the participants were measured by their height and weight as part of a physical examinations used for the survey. Data received from the NHANES is given out in a 2 year cycle period. As part of this study they used the definition of obesity to analyze participant, which can be difficult because the definitions of obesity are different for each age group so they are analyzed accordingly. Obesity for infants and toddlers younger than 2 years old is determined by a weight-for-recumbent length at or greater

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than the 95th percentile on the growth charts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Participants ages 2-19 years old were analyzed for obesity based off of their BMIs that have a 95th percentile or greater, which is based off of gender. Also analyzed were school age children and teenagers with a BMI of 30 or more, which is considered the definition of adult obesity. Other things they took into account for this study was gender, age, and ethnicity. Multiple logistic regression models and statistical analyses were also operated to get more information for this study. Only 4,111 out of 4,183 participants were included in these results because some participants didnt have full information. In 2009-2010, 16.9 percent of children and adolescents were obese, and 9.7 percent of infants had a high weight-for-recumbent length in the US. For children and teenagers that are males, aged 2 to 19 years, showed an increased obesity prevalence, but for females they had no change in prevalence of obesity between 1999-2000 and 2009-2010. Females have lower odds of being obese in children and adolescents for ages 2 through 19 years. BMI changes have been shown from the regression models that were made. In 1999-2010 Non-Hispanic blacks and Mexican American children and teens both males and females, have higher odds of being obese. Between the years 2007-2008 and 2009-2010, obesity prevalence hasnt significantly changed. In 2007-2008 obesity prevalence was 16.8 percent comparing to the 16.9 percent in 2009-2010. At any age, BMI trends have been greater in males than for females. The prevalence of obesity is different for each ethnicity, which was shown by the NHANES. Results from this study in the United States arent always accurate with other countries, because there definition of obesity can be different. Countries like Germany, Japan and Sweden have been getting similar results to this research, which shows accuracy of this study. Childhood obesity is a big concern

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for people around the world. People who do research on obesity, have suggested that obesity prevalence will reach 30 percent for children in 2030. The data from years before have also suggested that obesity prevalence could stay flatten out, but no one is really sure what could happen in the future for obesity prevalence.

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Work Cited
Ogden, Cynthia L., Margaret D. Carrol, Brian K. Kit, and Katherine M. Flegal. "Prevalence of Obesity and Trends in Body Mass Index among US Children and Adolescents, 19992010." JAMA. American Medical Association, 1 Feb 2012. Web. 13 Mar 2013. <jama.jamanetwork.com>.