Obesity Epidemic Facts


• Today's children may be the first generation to have a shorter life expectancy than their parents.
   
• Obesity is now second only to smoking as a preventable cause of death.
   
• About 20% of all kids are considered to be overweight. Another 15% are considered on their way to becoming overweight.
   
• Since the 1970s the prevalence of obesity in the United States has more than tripled among children aged 6 to 14 and has more than doubled among children aged 2 to 8 and adolescents between 10 and 18.
   
• A majority of overweight kids and teenagers have already developed at least one additional risk factor for heart disease and 25% of them have two or more.
   
• Rising bodies of epidemiological studies suggest that youth obesity by itself may shorten a person's life expectancy, whether or not the individual remains obese as an adult.
   
• The direct and indirect medical costs of obesity currently consume about 10% of the U.S. health care budget, a percentage that is expected to continue to rise.
   
• The cost of hospitalization of children aged 5 to 16 for obesity-related illnesses have tripled between 1979 and 1999.
   
• Between 1982 and 1994, the frequency of type 2 diabetes in children rose tenfold, according to a report by Cincinnati researchers. This obesity-related disorder, once rare in children, now accounts for at least one-third of new cases of diabetes in adolescents.
   
• Thirty percent of boys and 40% of girls born in the United States in 2000 will become diabetic at some point in their lives unless current obesity trends are reversed, according to projections by epidemiologists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
   
• By the age of 14, one-third of girls and more than half of boys are drinking three or more 8-ounce servings of soft drinks per day.
   
• French fried potatoes account for 46% of vegetable servings for children between the ages of 2 and 19, according to government data collected in 1999-2000. In contrast, dark green and orange vegetables, rich in vitamins, made up only 8 percent of kids' vegetable intake.
   
• Consumption of meals and snacks at fast food restaurants tripled between 1997 and 1995. In 1997 nearly half of family expenditures for food were spent on food and drink prepared outside the home and more than one-third were for fast food.
   
• Based on class observation studies, some experts have estimated that elementary school children may average as little as 10 minutes per week of moderate to vigorous activity in physical education classes.
   
• Between the ages of 8 and 18, U.S. children average 5.5 hours per day of "screen time"-watching TV, DVDs, and videotapes or playing video games.
   
• 25% of children younger than 2 have a television in their bedrooms.