Overweight Children
A national epidemic
Highmark Healthy High 5 is committed to promoting nutritious eating and weight control. According to the Childhood Obesity Action Network, these key points apply to Pennsylvania's children and adolescents:
- Approximately 29.3% of Pennsylvania children ages 10-17 years (are considered overweight or obese according to BMI-or-age standards.
- Pennsylvania children with public health insurance have an overweight/obese prevalence rate of 31.2%, roughly two percentage points higher than the rate for privately insured children (28.8%).
- Pennsylvania ranks first (i.e., best) in overweight/obese prevalence among children in poor families with a rate of 26.7%. The state's income disparity ratio of 1.18 ranks second.
- 85 percent of children get less than five servings of fruits and vegetables per day, and a majority of intake comes from the consumption of French fries and ketchup. (USDA, 2002)
- Once a person becomes overweight, weight reduction and weight maintenance are extremely difficult to achieve, so prevention is the most effective solution to the problem of overweight and obesity. (Pennsylvania Dept of Health, 2002)
- Overweight adolescents have a 70 percent chance of becoming overweight or obese adults. (NIH, 2002)
- Students who eat a nutritious meal concentrate better, attend school more regularly, are less aggressive, and show improved behavior overall. (DeRoose, E. and T. Fitzpatrick. School Children: Inactive and Overweight — An Alarming Trend. EpiNorth. 2002)
- Studies show that school breakfast promotes healthier eating to fight obesity; improves students' achievement, behavior and test scores; and reduces absenteeism, tardiness and visits to the school nurse. (Food research access center, 2005)
WTAJ-TV News Report
See a news report about children and nutrition as seen on WTAJ-TV (wearecentralpa.com).
