In what can only be perceived as good-health news, obesity rates in poor children ages 2 to 4 are dropping, a Centers for Disease Control study has determined.
As reported by ABC News Univision, “[T]he percentage of children between the ages of two and four who were obese fell to 14.9 percent in 2010 from 15.2 percent in 2003. This shift came after rates rapidly increased between 1998 and 2003.” The study also found that extreme obesity had declined within the same demographic, falling to 2.07 percent in 2010 from 2.22 percent in 2003. The findings were based on polling data from 30 states and spanned from 1998 to 2010.
The study also determined that “Hispanics were counted among the groups that experienced modest declines in obesity within this age group. This marks the reversal of a startling trend in the Latino community where 38.2 percent of Latino children between the ages of 2 and 19 are either overweight or obese, according to a study conducted by the Leadership for Healthy Communities in 2010. In comparison, 31.7 percent of all children fell within the same categorization.”
The article also reports, “Despite the modest decline in early childhood obesity, Latino youth still suffer from alarming rates of diabetes and are more likely to be overweight or obese than the general population. Low-income families are also disproportionately at risk. A recent study by research affiliates with the American Diabetes Association found that Latino children have the fastest growing rate of diabetes of any ethnic group in the country.”
Photo (c) Theodore Scott via Flickr
