Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2019 Dec 1:6:2333794X19891305.
doi: 10.1177/2333794X19891305. eCollection 2019.

Childhood and Adolescent Obesity in the United States: A Public Health Concern

Adekunle Sanyaolu  1 , Chuku Okorie  2 , Xiaohua Qi  3 , Jennifer Locke  3 , Saif Rehman  3
Affiliations
Review

Childhood and Adolescent Obesity in the United States: A Public Health Concern

Adekunle Sanyaolu et al. Glob Pediatr Health. .

Abstract

Childhood and adolescent obesity have reached epidemic levels in the United States. Currently, about 17% of US children are presenting with obesity. Obesity can affect all aspects of the children including their psychological as well as cardiovascular health; also, their overall physical health is affected. The association between obesity and other conditions makes it a public health concern for children and adolescents. Due to the increase in the prevalence of obesity among children, a variety of research studies have been conducted to discover what associations and risk factors increase the probability that a child will present with obesity. While a complete picture of all the risk factors associated with obesity remains elusive, the combination of diet, exercise, physiological factors, and psychological factors is important in the control and prevention of childhood obesity; thus, all researchers agree that prevention is the key strategy for controlling the current problem. Primary prevention methods are aimed at educating the child and family, as well as encouraging appropriate diet and exercise from a young age through adulthood, while secondary prevention is targeted at lessening the effect of childhood obesity to prevent the child from continuing the unhealthy habits and obesity into adulthood. A combination of both primary and secondary prevention is necessary to achieve the best results. This review article highlights the health implications including physiological and psychological factors comorbidities, as well as the epidemiology, risk factors, prevention, and control of childhood and adolescent obesity in the United States.

Keywords: BMI; United States; adolescents; body mass index; childhood; obesity.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Prevalence of obesity among children and adolescents aged 2 to 19 years, by sex and age: the United States, 2015-2016.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Trends in obesity prevalence among children and adolescents aged 2 to 19 years: the United States, 1999-2000 through 2015-2016.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Prevalence of obesity among children and adolescents aged 2 to 19 years, by sex and race and Hispanic origin: the United States, 2015-2016.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Comorbidities and potential health consequences of childhood obesity.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Hales CM, Carroll MD, Fryar CD, Ogden CL. Prevalence of Obesity Among Adults and Youth: United States, 2015-2016. NCHS Data Brief, No. 288. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics; 2017. - PubMed
    1. Ahmad QI, Ahmad CB, Ahmad SM. Childhood obesity. Indian J Endocrinol Metab. 2010;14:19-25. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Dehghan M, Akhtar-Danesh N, Merchant AT. Childhood obesity, prevalence and prevention. Nutr J. 2005;4:24. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Daniels SR, Arnett DK, Eckel RH, et al. Overweight in children and adolescents: pathophysiology, consequences, prevention, and treatment. Circulation. 2005;111:1999-2012. - PubMed
    1. National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. Overweight and obesity. http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/obe/risks. Accessed November 14, 2019.

LinkOut - more resources