29 Apr Still A Lot Of Work To Do To Reverse Childhood Obesity

MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Dr. Ashley Kranjac

Ashley Wendell Kranjac, PhD
Department of Sociology and
Kinder Institute for Urban Research
Rice University
Houston, Texas and

Dr. Robert Wagmiller

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.

MedicalResearch.com: What should clinicians and patients take away from your report?

Response: The take home message is that although there are changes in children’s sociodemographic and lifestyle characteristics (e.g., we show that in 2011/12, compared to 2003/4, a smaller proportion of children lived in low-income households, had mothers who smoked during pregnancy, had mothers who did not breastfeed, had high daily energy intake, spent significant time involved in sedentary activities, and frequently ate out. And that a higher proportion of children engaged in physical activities for significant amounts of time), none of these changes contributed to the decline in obesity, overall or for boys or girls. This means that we still have a lot of work to do to reverse the growing obesity rates in children.

MedicalResearch.com: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?

Response: We encourage future researchers to employ similar decomposition techniques with other data sets that have more comprehensive measures of children’s sedentary and physical activity characteristics to further disentangle the effects of changing demographic, economic, and health characteristics on child obesity.

MedicalResearch.com: Thank you for your contribution to the MedicalResearch.com community.

Citation:

Pediatrics April 2016

Association Between Age and Obesity Over Time

Ashley Wendell Kranjac, Robert L. Wagmiller

Note: Content is Not intended as medical advice. Please consult your health care provider regarding your specific medical condition and questions.

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Last Updated on April 29, 2016 by Marie Benz MD FAAD