2015
Profiles of Latino Health
A Closer Look at Latino Child Nutrition
ISSUE 3: TRENDS IN OVERWEIGHT AND OBESITY AMONG LATINO CHILDREN* Overweight and obesity rates among all Americans have doubled among adults and tripled among children since 1980.1 While overweight and obesity pose a challenge to all children, Latino† children are more likely to experience these conditions than other children. As Latinos represent a rapidly growing share of the U.S. population of children, particularly under age five, the number of overweight and obese children will continue to grow if the underlying causes are not addressed. Obese children are more likely to struggle with obesity throughout adulthood and face poorer health outcomes. As such, child overweight and obesity present serious challenges not only for the Latino community but for the nation.‡ CHILD OVERWEIGHT AND OBESITY DEFINED
Researchers define overweight as children whose body mass index (BMI) is greater than the 85th percentile (but lower than the 95th percentile) for age and sex, according to child growth charts developed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Children with a BMI that exceeds the 95th percentile for their age and sex are considered obese. Figures for overweight children include obese children. Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Basics About Childhood Obesity (Atlanta, GA, 2012), http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/childhood/basics.html (accessed August 2014).
Hispanic children are more likely than their peers to be overweight or obese. • In 2012, 31.8% of all children (ages 2–19) in the United States were overweight and 16.9% were obese.§
Figure 1: Rates of Children’s Weight Status, Ages 2–19, by Race/Ethnicity, 2011–2012 100% 80%
• Approximately seven million Latino children were overweight. This means that 38.9% of all Hispanic children were overweight, whereas 35.2% of Black children and 28.5% of White children were overweight.
60% 40%
14.1
22.4
20.2
15.9
15
61.7
64.8
71.5
Hispanic
Black
White
14.4
20%
• Over four million Latino children were considered obese. This means that 22.4% of all Hispanic children were obese. Comparatively, 20.2% of Black children and 14.1% of White children were obese. See Figure 1 for children’s weight statuses for 2011–2012.
0%
Normal/ Under Weight
Overweight
Obese
Source: NCLR calculations from Cynthia L Ogden et al., “Prevalence of Childhood and Adult Obesity in the United States, 2011–2012,” JAMA 311, no. 8 (2014): 806–814. The overweight category does not include obese children; this group is presented separately.
* This profile was authored by Minerva Delgado, Consultant to the Health Policy Project in NCLR’s Office of Research, Advocacy, and Legislation (ORAL), with substantive input, direction, and oversight from Samantha Vargas Poppe, Associate Director, Policy Analysis Center, and Steven Lopez, Manager, Health Policy Project. It is an update of a document originally released in 2010 and authored by Kara D. Ryan. NCLR is the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States. This brief was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The findings and conclusions presented are those of the author and NCLR alone and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of our funders. Permission to copy, disseminate, or otherwise use information from this paper is granted, provided that appropriate credit is given to NCLR. † The terms “Hispanic” and “Latino” are used interchangeably by the U.S. Census Bureau and throughout this document to refer to persons of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central and South American, Dominican, Spanish, and other Hispanic descent; they may be of any race. Furthermore, unless otherwise noted, estimates in this document do not include the 3.7 million residents of Puerto Rico. Comparison data for non-Hispanic Whites and non-Hispanic Blacks will be identified respectively as “Whites” and “Blacks.” ‡ More than one-fifth (22.1%) of all children under age 18—and about one-quarter (25.5%) of children under age five—are Hispanic. NCLR calculation using data for the U.S. Bureau of the Census, “2008 Annual Social and Economic Supplement,” Current Population Survey. Conducted by the Bureau for the Census for the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Washington, DC, 2008, http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/cpstc/ cps_table_creator.html (accessed June 2010). §
See M.K. Serdula et al., “Do obese children become obese adults? A review of the literature,” Preventive Medicine 22, no. 2 (1993): 167–177. The researchers find that approximately one-third of obese preschool children and one-half of obese school-age children became obese adults, and likelihood increases among obese children at older ages.
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2015
Profiles of Latino Health
A Closer Look at Latino Child Nutrition
ISSUE 3: TRENDS IN OVERWEIGHT AND OBESITY AMONG LATINO CHILDREN Hispanic boys are more likely to be obese than Hispanic girls and other boys. • Obesity rates among Hispanic boys (24.1%) were higher than those for Hispanic girls (20.6%).* • Overall, Hispanic boys (24.1%) were nearly twice as likely to be obese as White boys (12.6%). Latino infants are more likely than their White peers to be obese. • According to the CDC, 14.7% of Hispanic infants (under age two) were obese compared to 10.3% of White infants. While high overall, overweight and obesity rates for Latino children vary throughout stages of childhood. • Among preschoolers (children ages two to five), more than 29.8% of Latinos were overweight. Of these children, 16.7% of Hispanic preschoolers were obese (twice the national average for this age group). • By age group 6–11, nearly half (46.2%) of Hispanic children were overweight or obese. Over onequarter (26.1%) were obese. • Rates of obesity and overweight improve slightly among older Hispanic children (age group 12–19); 38.1% of Hispanics were overweight or obese and 22.6% of Hispanics were obese. See Figure 2 for rates of overweight and obesity among Latino children, by age group, in 2011–2012.
Figure 2: Rates of Overweight and Obesity Among Hispanic Children by Age Group, 2011-2012 Rates of Overweight and Obesity Among Hispanic Children by Age Group, 2011-‐2012 46.2
50 40 30 20
38.1 29.8
26.1 16.7
22.6
10 0
2-‐5
6-‐11 % Overweight
12-‐19 % Obese
Source: Cynthia L Ogden et al., “Prevalence of Childhood and Adult Obesity in the United States, 2011–2012,” JAMA 311, no. 8 (2014): 806–814.Cynthia L Ogden et al., Prevalence of Childhood and Adult Obesity in the United States, 2011-2012, JAMA, 2014.
Latino children are at greater risk of overweight and obesity than other children throughout all stages of their childhood and adolescence. It is clear that without intervention, Latino children of all ages will continue to be represent a disproportionate share of the overweight and obese population.
* Unless otherwise noted, all statistics in this document are derived from Cynthia L Ogden et al., “Prevalence of Childhood and Adult Obesity in the United States, 2011–2012,” JAMA 311, no. 8 (2014): 806–814.
Endnotes 1 White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity, Solving the Problem of Childhood Obesity Within A Generation. Washington, DC, 2010. 2 Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, “Table 18D: Summary of Trends in Growth and Anemia Indicators by Race/Ethnicity.” Pediatric and Pregnancy Nutritional Surveillance System, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Washington, DC, 2011, http://www.cdc.gov/pednss/ pednss_tables/pdf/national_table18.pdf (accessed August 2014).
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