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6. Prevalence of Serious Conditions in School Aged Children/Youth (cont’d)
Obesity/Overweight
Source: CDC website: http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/obesity/facts.htm
• Obesity has more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents in the past
30 years.
• The percentage of children aged 6–11 years in the United States who were obese
increased from 7% in 1980 to nearly 18% in 2012. Similarly, the percentage of
adolescents (12–19 years) who were obese increased from 5% to nearly 21% over the
same period.
• In 2012, more than one third of children and adolescents were overweight or obese.
• Overweight is defined as having excess body weight for a particular height from fat,
muscle, bone, water, or a combination of these factors. Obesity is defined as having
excess body fat.
Source: Centers for Disease Control website:
http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/childhood.html
For 2011-2012:
Overall, obesity among our nation’s young people, aged 2 to 19 years, has not changed significantly since 2003-2004 and remains at about 17 percent.
• Approximately 17% (or 12.7 million) of children and adolescents aged 2—19 years had
obesity.
• The prevalence of obesity among children aged 2 to 5 years decreased significantly
from 13.9% in 2003-2004 to 8.4% in 2011-2012.
• Obesity prevalence was higher among Hispanics (22.4%) and non-Hispanic black youth
(20.2%) than non-Hispanic white youth (14.1%). The prevalence of obesity was lower in
non-Hispanic Asian youth (8.6%).
• In 2011-2012, 8.4% of 2- to 5-year-olds had obesity compared with 17.7% of
6- to 11-year-olds and 20.5% of 12- to 19-year-olds.
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