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Childhood obesity in the United States continued to grow in recent years to reach a prevalence of 21% among children under 19 years of age, according to a study published Monday in the prestigious medical journal JAMA.
The research analyzed data from nearly 15,000 children and adolescents between the ages of 2 and 19.
The study shows that the rate of minors suffering from obesity rose from 17.7% (2011 to 2012) to 21.5% in the period (2017 to 2020). Data collection for the period 2019-2020 was paused in March 2020 because of the pandemic, so they were joined with those from 2017-2018 to maintain a national estimate.
Although the researchers detected a widespread increase in obesity, there are differences between racial groups.
Mexican Americans, for example, are the most affected, registering an obesity rate of 27%.
Childhood obesity among African-Americans affects 23.8% of children under 19 years of age, while among whites it affects 18.4%, according to the researchers’ estimates.
“Due to the significant increase in obesity, there is an urgent need to identify the antecedents and correlations between obesity and cardiometabolic risk to aid in early prevention,” concludes the study’s lead researcher, Amanda Staiano.
