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 Ten percent of teens now have severe obesity, lead researcher
Asheley Skinner of the Duke Clinical Research Institute told Reuters
Health by phone.
The public health campaigns and White House initiatives targeting
childhood obesity in recent years have stressed staying active and
making healthy food choices. That advice may be more effective for
kids who are not yet overweight or obese than for those who are
already obese, Skinner said.
“We don’t know what this trend would look like without those
initiatives but we’re certainly not seeing a reversal,” she said.
Kids with severe obesity often “need more intensive interventions,
beginning with the healthcare system, with pediatricians or family
providers,” Skinner said.
The researchers used National Health and Nutrition Examination
Survey data from 1999 through 2014 for children ages two to 19.
During that time, all classes of obesity continued to increase, in
particular severe obesity for children and teens, which usually
means being at least 100 pounds overweight.
In 2013 and 2014, 33 percent of children were overweight and 17
percent were obese, Skinner and colleagues reported in Obesity.
Obesity increased over time for teens of both sexes, and was
consistently more common for black and Hispanic children than for
white children.
“The data suggest that over six million children and adolescents
have severe obesity,” Dr. William Dietz of George Washington
University wrote in a commentary published with the study report.
Another analysis which also used NHANES data but started in the 2003
cycle instead of the 1999 cycle concluded that obesity among kids
and teens did not change over time, and obesity among two- to
five-year-olds fell over time from 14 to 8 percent, Dietz wrote.
Neither conclusion is necessarily wrong, but relying on NHANES data
alone doesn’t provide conclusive information on the obesity
epidemic, he wrote.
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There is evidence, however, that people have started to consume less
sugary drinks, fast food and pizza over the last decade, Dietz
wrote.
Obesity is increasing in a similar way in other countries, Skinner
said.
Kids with severe obesity need 20 or 30 hours of interaction with a
care provider, which is more than a general practitioner can
provide, she said.
“Oftentimes an insurance company will reimburse for a primary care
visit but not a YMCA membership, and there can be other structural
barriers like time and school,” Skinner said.
“There’s no one thing we have to do, if we’re going to reverse this
we’re going to have to do a lot of things,” she said.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/26rSLmA Obesity, online April 25, 2016.
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