Class-gap is contributing to poor kids having a higher obesity rate

While child obesity rates have started to stabilize, researchers from Harvard University say this drop isn't equally distributed among socioeconomic groups, with obesity rising among the children from poorer, less educated families.

The study, published Monday in the journal PNAS, found that the adolescent obesity rate is dropping for children from educated and more affluent families.

While obesity rates for children aged 12 to 19 did not rise overall between 2003-04 and 2009-10, the obesity rate among adolescents with parents who had no more than a high school diploma rose from 20 percent to 25 percent. Where as the obesity rate for kids of affluent and well-educated parents dropped from 14 percent to seven percent.

But when researchers looked at the obesity rate of younger children, age 2 to 11, the same class-gap was not evident.

They did find that physical exercise could account for the stark difference between the affluent and poor sections of society, as the children of less-educated parents consume fewer calories overall.

When asked in 2003 whether they had exercised or played a sport for 20 minutes continuously in the last seven days, 86.6 percent of adolescents living with parents who had college degrees said they had. This number rose to 90.1 percent by 2011.

When asked the same question, 79.8 percent of adolescents with parents having only a high school diploma had exercised or played continuously for 20 minutes in the last week. By 2011, this number was nearly unchanged at 80.4 percent.

When asked if they had engaged in exercise for 10 minutes in the last 30 days, 94.7 percent of children with college-educated parents said yes, while just 82.1 percent of children with high school-educated parents had engaged in such activity.

There was some progress made on the number of calories consumed by adolescents. Between 1998 and 2010, the calorie intake for adolescents with college-educated parents dropped from 2,487 to 2,150 per day. Among children with high school-educated parents, daily calorie intake dropped from 2,271 to 2,105 calories per day.

"The overall trend in youth obesity rates masks a significant and growing class gap between youth from upper and lower socioeconomic status backgrounds," the authors of the latest research wrote.

The researchers believe that if any progress is to be made on lowering the obesity rate for all children, irrespective of socioeconomic factors, then they will have to focus on why less advantaged children aren't getting as much exercise as they need.

[LATimes] [PNAS]