Four out of five children become obese before the age of six

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Monday, February 07, 2005 11:08 am Email this article
Eighty percent of children become obese before the age of six according to a new study. 38% lost weight, but less than 1% were no longer obese

Approximately 4 in 10 children (38 percent) who were referred to a pediatric endocrinology clinic lost weight, however, less than one percent of them (5 out of 587 children) reduced their weight enough to no longer be considered obese.

Childhood obesity defined as greater than 95 percentile

Childhood obesity is defined as being in the 95th percentile or above for weight for a child’s age and gender.

Half of mothers and fathers obese, 11% had diabetes

Half of the mothers and 58 percent of fathers were obese, and 11 percent of parents had self reported type 2 diabetes.

Elevated cholesterol in more than half, elevated insulin in three-fourths

More than half of children who were checked (56 percent), had elevated cholesterol, while three-fourths (77 percent) had elevated insulin levels.

Three-fourths of children white, more than half girls

Three-fourths of the children (76 percent) in the study were non-Hispanic white children, and a little more than half (58 percent) were girls.

Conclusion

“Our data underscore the need for early family-based behavioral-lifestyle intervention programs to be made available to pediatricians, enabling them to target the ‘at risk for overweight’ preschool children and their likely overweight parents,” the authors concluded.

REFERENCE

Quattrin T, Liu E, Shaw N, Shine B, Chiang E. Obese children who are referred to the pediatric endocrinologist: characteristics and outcome. Pediatrics. 2005 Feb, 115(2):348-51.

AUTHOR’S CONTACT INFORMATION

T. Quattrin
Division of Endocrinology/Diabetes
Women’s and Children’s Hospital of Buffalo
219 Bryant St
Buffalo, NY 14222
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Articles on the same subject can be found here:

• Childhood Obesity