Study strengthens evidence that severe obesity is increasing among young US children

A new study confirms that severe obesity is increasingly common among young American children.

It was hoped that children on a government food program could reverse the trend in obesity rates: previous research had found that rates were falling a bit about a decade ago for these children. But an update published Monday in the newspaper Pediatrics shows that the rate has rebounded slightly by 2020.

The increase echoes other national data, which suggests that about 2.5% of all preschoolers were severely obese during the same period.

“We were doing well and now we’re seeing this upward trend,” said one of the study’s authors, Heidi Blanck of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “We are dismayed by these results.”

The study focused on children ages 2 to 4 enrolled in the Women, Infants and Children program, which provides healthy foods and other services to preschool-aged children from low-income families. The children were weighed and measured.

Researchers found that 2.1 percent of children in the program were severely obese in 2010. Six years later, the rate had dropped to 1.8 percent. But in 2020, that figure was 2%. That translates to about 33,000 of the more than 1.6 million children enrolled in the WIC program.

Significant increases were seen in 20 states, with the highest rate in California at 2.8%. Notable increases were also seen in some racial and ethnic groups. The highest rate, about 2.8%, was among Hispanic children.

Experts say severe obesity at a very young age is almost irreversible and is strongly associated with chronic health problems and early death.

It’s unclear exactly why this increase occurred, Blanck said.

When WIC obesity rates fell, some experts attributed it to 2009 policy changes that removed fruit juice from infant food packages, provided less saturated fat and attempted to make it easier to purchase fruits and vegetables.

The package has not changed. But “the daily challenges faced by families living in poverty may be tougher today than they were 10 years ago, and small increases in the WIC program simply weren’t enough ” said Dr. Sarah Armstrong, a childhood obesity researcher at Duke University. .

Researchers faced challenges. The number of children enrolled in WIC has declined over the past decade. And the study period included 2020, the year the COVID-19 pandemic hit, when fewer parents took their children to see a doctor. This has reduced the amount of comprehensive information available.

Despite its limitations, it’s a “very well-done study,” said Deanna Hoelscher, a childhood obesity researcher at the UTHealth Houston School of Public Health. “It gives you an idea of ​​what’s going on.”

What has happened since 2020 is not yet known. Some small studies have suggested a marked increase in childhood obesity, particularly during the pandemic, when children were kept home from school, eating and bedtime routines were disrupted and physical activity decreased.

“We think the situation will get worse,” Hoelscher said.

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