Teens with Healthy Body Weight

This indicator measures the proportion of ninth grade students in public schools who have a healthy body weight.

Maintaining a healthy body weight helps to protect individuals from heart disease, certain cancers, stroke, diabetes, depression, and a number of other significant health problems (30). Obesity, as a result of poor diet and physical inactivity, is the second leading preventable cause of death in the United States (31). Since 1980, obesity has doubled among U.S. adults (32) and more than tripled among U.S. children (33). Approximately 70% of teenagers who are obese will become obese adults (34). According to the New England Journal of Medicine, today’s children may lead less healthy lives and have shorter life spans than their parents due largely to increasing obesity rates (35).

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has developed recommendations for the prevention of obesity through communitybased strategies.

Irvine Uni ed Laguna Beach Uni ed Los Alamitos Uni ed Capistrano Uni ed Brea-Olinda Uni ed Saddleback Valley Uni ed Placentia-Yorba Linda Uni ed Newport-Mesa Uni ed Tustin Uni ed Fullerton Joint Union High Huntington Beach Union High Orange County Orange Uni ed Garden Grove Uni ed California Anaheim Union High Santa Ana Uni ed 90% 90% 87% 86% 82% 82% 81% 81% 79% 79% 78% 77% 76% 73% 71% 68% 62%

Percent of Ninth Grade Students with Healthy Body Composition by School District, 2009/10

Source: California Physical Fitness Test, 2009/10 (http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/pf/pftresults.asp)

SAN BERNARDINO

LOS ANGELES

62% - 68% 69% - 77% 78% - 82% 83% - 90%

RIVERSIDE

SAN DIEGO

0 2.5 5 10 Miles