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Stat Shot: The State Of Childhood Obesity

April 26, 2024
Obesity rates have more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents in the past 30 years. From 1980 to 2012, we saw an increase in childhood obesity rates from 7 percent to 18 percent. During the same time period, the rates of adolescent obesity increased from 5 percent to 21 percent.

These statistics are particularly troubling because of the vast number of short and long-term health consequences children face as a result of being overweight.

Recent research indicates that childhood obesity rates may be tied to a parent’s discipline methods. The study, conducted by the Centre for Physical Activity at Deakin University, found that the family environment was the most important factor in determining a child’s physical activity levels. Parental habits greatly impacting their children. For example, parents who allow children to have a television in the bedroom when this has been linked to a higher body mass index (BMI) are playing a role in developing unhealthy lifestyle habits for their children.

According to the study, parents who ate breakfast, exercised, or had meals as a family tended to have children who ate more fruits and vegetables and who were more physically active. Meanwhile, other factors, such as whether children lived in close proximity to schools (and were thus more likely to walk to school), also played a role in the child’s level of physical fitness.

Another study, conducted by the University College London Institute of Child Health and London School of Hygiene found that, of 2,976 parents questioned, only four thought that their child was too overweight, despite 369 of those children being officially classified as such. Almost one third of those parents underestimated where their child’s body mass index (BMI) was on the official healthy weight scales.

What Are The Dangers?

Childhood obesity has both immediate and long-term effects on health and wellbeing. Among the immediate effects: