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The numbers are improving, unless they aren’t

Things are looking up on the childhood obesity front. Or are they? Decide for yourself. The hard data, as reported in a recent issue of USA Today: In 1980, 7 percent of American kids ages 6 to 11 and 5 percent of those 12 to 19 were obese.

By 1994, those numbers had rocketed upward to 11 percent for both groups, a more than double increase for the teens. By 2002, the number for both age groups had again soared, to 16 percent in each case.

After these breathtaking increases, many consider it a hopeful sign that the 2006 numbers, just released, are 17 percent and 18 percent for the two groups respectively. The glass-half-full take is that this small uptick is statistically not even significant, and the rise in childhood obesity may have peaked.

But the glass-half-empty view is that childhood obesity remains at crisis levels, having risen threefold since 1980, and that the current levels portend huge health costs down the road.

Which interpretation is the correct one may depend on the causes underlying the perceived plateau in obesity growth. If the upward trend has been stalled because of effective diet, exercise and parental education programs that are now having an impact, hooray: the effect on young children who are just beginning school could be to forestall the bad habits that turned their older siblings into junior butterballs.

If, on the other hand, the plateau simply reflects genetic demographics — that most American children disposed to obesity have already become so, and that those who haven’t simply enjoy more efficient metabolisms or lesser appetites — then we may be stuck with a society in which nearly one in five kids are unhealthy by virtue of excess weight. That’s the kind of number that can break a health care system, unfortunately.

And the question arises: How has this come to pass? Why have so many parents allowed their children to fatten up to unhealthy degrees? The simple answer, if you draw your conclusions from the raw statistics, is that we have an increasing number of obese children because they are being raised by an increasing number of obese parents.

But the fact is that obese adults, for the most part, are not happy being obese, and the majority would probably act to prevent their children from experiencing the same inconvenience, stigma and self-esteem issues that they have. Plus, there are plenty of fit parents with overweight offspring.

Why bad habits happen to the children of good people

Great Britain’s Health Department suspected that the lack of parental restraint on chubby kids was rather more complicated, and undertook a research study, the results of which have now been published as part of the Brits’ Change4Life health-improvement campaign. Among their findings:

• Some parents, perhaps based on their own personal experience, have come to believe that a healthy lifestyle is simply unattainable for certain people. Others regard such a lifestyle as unaffordable, with poorer parents considering it the province of the middle and upper classes.
• Parents overestimate the amount of exercise their children get, often assuming they’re active at school, and underestimate how much they eat.
• In many families, food is seen as an expression of affection, of “providing for the children,” and used as a reward by parents who are more focused on their kids’ immediate gratification than their long-term health.
• More children eat fast food or packaged food because more parents cannot, due to time restrictions or simple lack of ability, prepare actual homemade meals for them.
• Parents encourage their kids to play computer games and watch TV rather than send them into the “unsafe” and threatening environment outdoors.

If you are a parent, and two or more of these behavior patterns remind you strongly of yourself, if may be time to get the kids onto a scale and compare their weight to the normal range for their age. Any kid can be at risk for obesity these days, and as with so many other areas of family life, the parents are often the last to know.

(By Robert S. Wieder for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News)

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This entry was posted on Friday, January 9th, 2009 and is filed under Childhood obesity, Kids and families, Obesity statistics. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed. Permalink.