Laura Catherine Odell
Abstract: Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes: What Factors of Modern Lifestyles Place Children at Risk?
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, childhood obesity has tripled in the United States since 1980. This epidemic places the nation’s children at risk for problems such as “adult onset” or type 2 diabetes. This disease’s recent increase in youth reflects societal patterns promoting physical inactivity and caloric over consumption. Aggressive intervention is essential to curtail these trends. Presently, complications from diabetes are most common in older adults; however, as the disease increases among children, comorbidities including cardiovascular disease, nephropathy, and neuropathy may reduce the years of healthy life for younger Americans. This study sought to identify the lifestyle factors most associated with childhood obesity using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study by the National Center for Education Statistics. Body mass index (BMI) and lifestyle variables measuring physical activity, mealtime behaviors, and family emotional functioning were examined among 19,114 nationally representative kindergarten subjects. Lifestyle variables exhibiting significant relationships with overweight BMIs above the 95 th percentile were tested against BMIs below the 95 th percentile. Television viewing and team sport participation exhibited positive correlations with BMIs above the 95 th percentile. Eating breakfast, eating school lunches, and exercising were negatively correlated with overweight BMIs. The overweight group exhibited more significant relationships with these variables than the non-overweight group. The findings of this study are helpful for targeting obesity-prevention interventions specific to children’s risk factors. This is an essential step in tackling the childhood obesity epidemic and preventing complications such as type 2 diabetes and its comorbidities from afflicting America’s youth.
