WASHINGTON : More US children are becoming extremely obese at a younger age, putting them at risk of dying decades younger than normal-weight children and of suffering old-age illnesses in their 20s, a study warned Thursday.
The brand new category of extreme childhood obesity, which was defined last year by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), affects 7.3 percent of boys and 5.5 percent of girls, the study by leading US health care provider Kaiser Permanente showed.
That translates into more than half a million children in California alone, where the study was carried out, being classified as extremely obese, or having a body mass index (BMI) -- calculated by dividing a person's weight in kilograms by their height in meters squared -- greater than 35.
A 12-year-old boy standing five feet (1.52 meters) tall and weighing 180 pounds (82 kilograms) would be considered extremely obese under the CDC criteria.
Extreme obesity peaks earlier in boys -- at age 10 -- than in girls, who have two obesity peaks, at age 12 and again at 18, the study, which was published online in the Journal of Pediatrics, found.
"Without major lifestyle changes, these kids face a 10 to 20 years shorter lifespan and will develop health problems in their 20s that we typically see in 40 - 60 year olds," Corinna Koebnick, lead author of the study, said.
"For example, children who are extremely obese are at higher risk for heart disease, type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease and joint problems, just to name a few," said Koebnick, a researcher at Kaiser Permanente's department of research and evaluation.
Researchers looked at the health records for 2007 and 2008 of 711,000 children and teens in California, aged two to 19, for the study, which is the first to provide a snapshot of just how prevalent extreme obesity is in US children today.
With the results showing a rate of extreme obesity of around 12 percent in some groups, notably black teen girls and Hispanic teen boys, the authors warned that the tendency among young Americans appears to be away from normal weight and towards extreme obesity.
In addition to finding a worryingly high level of extreme obesity in US children, the researchers found that 37 percent of US kids were overweight -- defined by the CDC as having a BMI greater than 25 -- and 19 percent were obese, or had a BMI over 30.
Kaiser Permanente is a founding member of the non-profit Partnership for a Healthier America, which was set up earlier this year to generate support for First Lady Michelle Obama's campaign to push back childhood obesity in a generation.
Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2010 |
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