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OBESITY
RISK OF OBESITY REMAINS STEADY AT 18% OF 5TH GRADERS OVER THE LAST FOUR YEARS.
Description Of Indicator
This indicator reports data from the California Physical Fitness Test on the percent of 5th grade students who are classified as having health risk due to their body composition. Details about this indicator are provided in the box below.
Why is this important?
Excess weight acquired during childhood and adolescence may persist into adulthood and increase the risk for chronic diseases, such as sleep apnea, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and hypertension. Obese adolescents have a 70% chance of becoming obese adults.1 Excess weight can be prevented and treated through proper nutrition and physical activity (reported on page 30-31 of this report), especially during the critical periods of infancy, two to four years of age, and adolescence.
Findings
• During the 2016/17 school year, 18.0% (6,600) of Orange County 5th graders tested were classified as obese. This rate has remained steady since 2013/14 at approximately 18% and is lower than California at approximately 21.5% of 5th graders.
• Among race and ethnic groups, Pacific Islander (36.2%) and American Indian (28.2%) 5th graders had the highest percentages of students classified at health risk due to their body composition, followed by Hispanic (26.8%), Black (17.3%), Filipino (13.3%), Asian (9.7%), White (8.5%), and Multiracial (7.3%) 5th graders.2
• As of 2013/14, “at health risk due to body composition” is equivalent to or greater than the 95th percentile of BMI, which is considered obese.
California Physical Fitness Test uses the Cooper Institute’s FITNESSGRAM approach, which classifies 5th grade students at “Health Risk” due to body composition when they had a body fat percentage or a body mass index (BMI) that could result in health issues. “Health Risk” classifications for body composition are defined using criterion-referenced, age-specific standards. The definitions of FITNESSGRAM categories were recently modified to more closely approximate widely accepted CDC-defined BMI weight classification schemes and improve classification agreement between body fat and BMI based approaches. Because of these adjustments, California Physical Fitness Test data collected prior to the 2013/14 school year are not comparable to those collected under the current standards.
Percent of 5th Grade Students who Are Obese, by Race/Ethnicity
Source: California Department of Education, DataQuest, 2018.
Notes: Black, Filipino, American Indian, and Pacific Islander 5th grade student enrollment is less than 2% of all 5th grade student enrollment. Percent at risk for these groups may be unstable and should be interpreted with caution.
