Author Interviews, Pediatrics, Weight Research / 29.04.2016
Still A Lot Of Work To Do To Reverse Childhood Obesity
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Ashley Wendell Kranjac, PhD
Department of Sociology and
Kinder Institute for Urban Research
Rice University
Houston, Texas and
Robert L. Wagmiller, Jr.
Associate Professor
Department of Sociology
Temple University
Philadelphia, PA 19122
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: The Center for Disease Control recently reported a decline in child obesity amongst 2-to5-year old children between 2003/4 and 2011/12 (see, Ogden et al. 2014). We aimed to identify the sources of this decline because this change occurred in a relatively short period of time. What we found is that the decline in obesity did not occur due to the things that you might expect like changes in physical activity or dietary practices (although there were some differences in these factors across years). But, rather, what we found is that because there were differences in obesity rates for the youngest and oldest children in this age range in 2003/4, but not in 2011/12, that the decline in obesity exists. In other words, because the oldest children in 2003/4 had significantly higher obesity rates than the youngest children in this time period, but this effect is not observable in 2011/12, we see a decline in obesity.
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