by Share On Social!
According to a recent study led by Duke Clinical Research Institute childhood obesity in the United States has not declined and severe obesity remains high.
Dr. Sarah Armstrong pediatrician and director of the Duke Healthy Lifestyles Program said in a recent video in regards to the childhood obesity epidemic that, “Not seeing changes in the actual numbers, as this study points out, certainly is problematic, because there have been all the efforts aimed towards it.”
Researchers found that 33.4 percent of children between the ages of 2 through 19 were overweight and among those 17.4 percent had obesity.
The results showed the continued increase of obesity among children from 1999 through 2014. Also according to the recent article 4.5 million children and adolescents had severe obesity, defined as class III, consistent with an adult BMI of 40 or more.
Dr. Armstrong suggests that what may be needed is to look policies that have a more disruptive impact, thinking about changes that may be out of most people’s comfort zone.
Dr. Asheley Skinner, Ph.D. associate professor at Duke and lead author of the study explained that more changes will need to be done across the board including healthy food and health care access, more physical education for school curricula and increased community and local resources like parks and sidewalks.
To read the full article on the recent research, click here.
By The Numbers
84
percent
of Latino parents support public funding for afterschool programs
