Childhood Obesity

America is facing a new rage of problems in the 21st century. Poverty, war, and health care are among these challenges, but a deeper problem threatens families and children across the country. Childhood obesity has become a nationwide epidemic, and parents and physicians alike are raising concerns.

Obesity--extreme overweight, defined in childhood as having a body mass index (comparison of weight to height) at or above the 95th percentile for age and sex--is a multifactorial condition. Fifteen percent of 6- to 11-year olds are obese compared with 11 percent in 1994. Obesity is most prevalent among Mexican American children (24 percent), as compared with 12 percent of non-Hispanic white children and 20 percent non-Hispanic black children (Ogden, Flegal, Carroll, & Johnson, 2002). In Canada the prevalence of obesity among 7- to 13-year olds doubled between 1981 and 1996, from 5 percent to 13.5 percent.

Obesity often results from an inherited tendency, aggravated by too little exercise and too much, or the wrong kinds of, food. Researchers have identified several genes that seem to be involved in obesity (Ristow, Muller-Wieland, & Kahn, 1998). Environment is also influential, since children tend to eat the same kinds of foods and develop the same kinds of habits as the people around them. Although children of all ages eat too much fat and sugar and too few healthy foods, diets of poor and minority children are especially unbalanced (Munoz, 1997). Inactivity may be a major factor in the sharp rise in obesity. There is a negative correlation between activity level and weight. Children who are heavier are necessarily less active but children tend to be overweight when they are less active. Children who watch four or more hours of television each day have more body fat and a higher BMI than those who watch less than two hours a day (Anderson & Crespo, 1998).

President Obama signed a Presidential Memorandum in conjunction with his wife's launch of a nationwide campaign to tackle childhood obesity. First lady Michelle Obama is leading a national public awareness effort to tackle the epidemic of childhood obesity. Let's Move! is a comprehensive initiative, launched by the First Lady, dedicated to solving the problem of obesity within a generation, so that children born today will grow up healthier and able to pursue their dreams. She is encouraging everyone to help support and amplify the work the Federal Government in improving the health of children.

There are several psychological factors contributing to childhood obesity. Family structure and context, that is, parental and familial attitudes, activity, nutritional patterns as well as familial stress, have an important role with respect to the beginning and continuation of overweight and obesity. Behavioral and emotional problems are found in many, though not all, obese children. These factors influence child's eating habits and many people eat in response to negative emotions such as boredom, sadness or anger.

Challenges include