Extreme obesity affects about 6.4 percent of children, according to a Kaiser Permanente study that suggests overweight kids are getting even heavier.
More children are graduating from “obese” to “extremely obese,” according to the study, the first to evaluate kids using U.S. guidelines published last year that distinguish among degrees of obesity. The report drew from the electronic medical records of 710,949 patients ages 2 to 19 years old enrolled in 2007-2008 in Kaiser health programs in Southern California.
First Lady Michelle Obama began a nationwide campaign against childhood obesity last month, urging American youths to get more exercise and develop healthier eating habits. Studies by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have shown that the rising childhood obesity rate has leveled off at around 17 percent in recent years.
“There are reports showing that the obesity epidemic is reaching a plateau, but it seems that obese children are becoming more obese,” said Corinna Koebnick, a research scientist at Kaiser Permanente in Pasadena, California. “It is very likely that this is what’s going on everywhere in the United States.” The Atlanta-based CDC last year defined extreme obesity as those whose body mass is 120 percent of the 95th percentile.
For a 10-year-old girl who is 4 feet 6 inches tall, extreme obesity starts at 129 pounds, according to Kaiser. For an 18- year-old boy who is about 5 feet 10 inches, 272 pounds is classified as extremely obese.
Surprising Results
The high rate of extreme obesity in the study surprised doctors, even though children in Southern California are slightly heavier than the national average, Koebnick said today in a telephone interview.
About 7.3 percent of boys and 5.5 percent of girls were extremely obese, translating to about 560,000 children and adolescents in California, Koebnick wrote with other researchers in the study published today in the journal Pediatrics.
Children who are extremely obese have higher risk of heart illness than obese patients, as indicated by increased rates of hypertension, high cholesterol and elevated liver enzymes, Koebnick said. The best way for parents to help obese children is to involve the entire family in eating healthier meals and exercising, she said.
“Without major lifestyle changes, these kids face a 10-to- 20-years shorter life span and will develop health problems in their 20s that we typically see in 40-60 year olds,” Koebnick said in a statement from Kaiser.
