For the first time in more than three decades, obesity rates for white and Asian children are falling in California, and they seem to have leveled off for Hispanic kids – all good signs that public health campaigns aimed at keeping young people away from unhealthful sweets and fatty foods are starting to work, according to a UCSF study.
The bad news is that those programs don’t seem to be reaching all children.
In particular, obesity rates are still climbing for black and American Indian girls. And the percentage of youths in the heaviest range – those whose body mass index puts them in the 99th percentile for their age and gender, according to fixed growth charts established by health officials based on 2000 data – is also continuing to rise.
The study, which is appears in today’s edition of the journal Pediatrics, suggests that public health programs created to fight obesity need to become much more widespread, said Dr. Kristine Madsen, an assistant professor of pediatrics at UCSF and lead author of the study.
“The fact that we’re seeing some decline suggests that the efforts we’re making on policy levels are having an impact, which is great. What no one expected is it’s driving a deeper wedge between racial and ethnic groups,” Madsen said. “This is a call to action for policies that will be truly equally distributed among communities.”
The study looked at BMI, or body mass index, numbers for more than 8 million California schoolchildren from 2001 to 2008. The children were in fifth, seventh and ninth grades, and were weighed as part of the state’s school-based BMI screening program.