JAMA: Kids sicker, fatter vs. parents' era

BOSTON, June 26 (UPI) -- U.S. kids are sicker as a whole with chronic illnesses, compared with their parents' generation, says a study published Tuesday.

The Harvard study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, noted that the American childhood obesity epidemic is largely behind a four-fold jump in chronic illnesses like diabetes among U.S. children.

For example, 18 percent of American children are considered clinically obese vs. just 5 percent in 1974, the researchers said.

"An estimated 60 percent of five to 10-year-old obese children already have one associated cardiovascular disease risk factor, and more than 20 percent have two or more risk factors," the Harvard team said.

What's more, asthma rates have doubled in kids in the last two decades, the report noted, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder is estimated to affect about 6 percent of school-age children.

Overall, 7 percent of U.S. children and adolescents had a chronic health condition in 2004, compared with 1.8 percent in 1960.

These findings do not bode well for healthcare costs -- which are already spiraling out of control -- as U.S. children reach adulthood, the researchers said.