Educating, Supporting and Empowering Community through Youth Fitness Programs, Nutrition and Events

Youth Health Statistics

All statistics and quotes, unless otherwise noted have been taken from FAMILY CIRCLE Magazine, April, 2004 Issue in an article entitled “Don’t Let Your Child Grow Up to Be Fat,” by Norine Dworkin.

The latest National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey show that the number of overweight children has tripled since 1980.
Ten percent of preschoolers are overweight and another 10 percent are at risk for becoming overweight.
Of Children ages 6 to 19, 15 percent are overweight while another 15 percent are at risk for becoming overweight.
“Four-year olds are being sent to our school clinics, out of breath,” says Paula Elbirt, M.D., medical director for the Children’s Aid Society. “Can you imagine being sent to the clinic because you are so obese that running around the playground has you out of breath? In 10 or 15 years, we’re looking at very young people with cardiovascular complications unless we do something about this.”
“By age six, obesity already matters and affects the long-term likelihood of being obese and dealing with health problems like diabetes, cancer and heart disease,” says Jeffrey Schwimmer, M.D., director of pediatrics at the University of California, San Diego.
“There is concern that this will be the first generation of kids to have a shorter life span than their parents,” according to William Cochran, M.D., director of the Pediatric Weight Management Center at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Pennsylvania.
Obese children are already experiencing the kind of obesity-related diseases-such as hypertension, high cholesterol and type 2 diabetes that were once only seen in adults.
In 1999 the hospital costs to treat childhood obesity hit $127 million, triple the amount spent in 1979.
“For every child with diabetes, there are five to ten more kids who are overweight and may not know that they have insulin resistance, a diabetes precursor that’s just as deadly over time. What’s frightening is that insulin resistance is a ticking time bomb for cardiovascular disease before we even realize a child has diabetes,” says Floyd Culler, M.D., professor of pediatrics at the University of California, Irvine.
A 21-year-long study of more than 9,100 children in Bogalusa, Louisiana, found that 58 percent of overweight children (some as young as 5) had at least one risk factor for heart disease besides obesity; 20 percent had two or more.
Overweight children are experiencing higher rates of gum disease, sleep apnea, asthma, orthopedic and gallbladder disorders.
Adults who were obese when young have double the mortality rate of those who were slender.
Childhood obesity also contributes to social isolation and peer ridicule.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, the percentage of overweight children between the ages of 6 and 11 has increased 300 percent in the past 25 years. (ACE FitnessMatters, Volume 10, Issue 3, 2004, page7).
Numerous studies have shown that active children are more likely to stay fit as adults and less likely to become obese and develop diabetes in early adulthood. They perform better academically, are more social, miss school less often and are not as likely to drink and take drugs. (ACE FitnessMatters, Volume 10, Issue 3, 2004, page7).
Lack of exercise is the primary cause of obesity among kids ages 11 to 15. Instead of being active, kids are spending more time playing computer games and watching TV. (ACE Fitness Matters, Volume 10, Issue 3, page 6).
The National Association for Sports and Physical Education has established that only about 26 percent of high school students get daily PE, 40 percent of high school students and 75 percent of high school seniors are not enrolled in gym classes of any kind. (ACE FitnessMatters, Volume 10, Issue 3, page 9).
“Kindergarten through third grade is the crucial period in which to teach kids basic movement skills. Yet both the amount and the quality of physical education are lacking.” (Robert Malina, sports sociologist in Bay City, Texas, FitnessMatters, Volume 10, Issue 3, page 8).
“Many schools don’t have either the time or money to fund everything, and when push comes to shove, most people are willing to cut physical education.” (This mentality is so prevalent that, for example, it took seven years for the Louisiana state legislature to approve a compulsory 40 minutes of PE per day). (Michael F. Bergeron, assistant professor of pediatrics at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta, FitnessMatters, Volume 10, Issue 3, page 8).

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