Does Food Processing Contribute to Childhood Obesity Disparities?

Abstract

Childhood obesity in the United States has become epidemic: the prevalence of obesity among children aged six to eleven years more than doubled between the late 1970s and 2000, rising from 6.5% to 15.3% (National Center for Health Statistics). Serious health consequences of childhood obesity include asthma (Belamarich et al.), type 2 diabetes (PinhasHamiel et al.), and high blood pressure (Must and Strauss). Half of overweight children become obese adults, and adult obesity is a strong predictor for numerous major health conditions. Annually, the cost of obesity comes to $117 billion plus 300,000 deaths (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services). Disturbing evidence has also emerged on the distributional effect of childhood obesity: there is a disproportional increase in the number and severity of overweight children. Figure 1 compares the distribution of z-score (body mass index [BMI] for age) of children aged two to ten years between 1989‐91 and 1998 using the Continuing Surveys of Food Intakes by Individuals (CSFII). A child is considered at-risk overweight or overweight, respectively, if his/her BMI exceeds the 85th or 95th percentile of the age- and genderspecific growth chart. This figure reveals that within a decade the right tail is expanding and there is an increase in severely obese children. Health care costs increase by 2.3% for every added unit of BMI (Raebel et al.). Moderately (BMI 30‐35) and severely (BMI ≥ 35) obese individuals, respectively, incur 25% and 44% more health care costs than normal weight individuals; these additional costs are largely explained by the increased risk of