Facts, Obesity

Facts & Figures

Obesity

The Need to Combat Childhood Obesity

• Overweight and obesity are associated with serious health risks. In children and adolescents, overweight and obesity are associated with increased risk for cardiovascular disease, whose indicators include high total cholesterol, high blood pressure and high fasting insulin, also an early indicator for diabetes.


• In addition to posing many physical health risks, obesity in children is associated with low self-esteem, sadness, loneliness and nervousness. As a result, obesity may have adverse effects on children’s social development.


• Overweight or obese children are more likely to be obese as adults. Obese children, ages 6-8, are ten times more likely to be obese adults than children who are not obese.


• Overweight and obesity increase the chances of developing type 2 diabetes.377 If obesity trends persist, one in three California children born in 2000 is expected to develop type 2 diabetes in their lifetime. The risk is highest among Latino and African American children: nearly half are expected to develop type 2 diabetes in their lifetime.


• Health care associated with adult overweight and obesity costs Californians $12.8 billion each year.

The Prevalence of Childhood Obesity

• About one in three California children (31%), ages 10-17, is overweight or obese, just slightly below the national average (32%).


• The number of children, ages 10-17, who are overweight or obese in California increased by an estimated 129,000 between 2003 and 2007, but with wide racial/ethnic disparities. The rate of obesity for white children decreased by 8%, but the rate for Latino and African American children increased by 4% and 8%, respectively. In 2007, 40% of Latino children, 34% of African American children and 18% of white children in California were overweight or obese.

Physical Activity and Children’s Well-Being

• According to federal guidelines, children and adolescents should participate in physical activity for at least one hour every day. Only 29% of California’s children, ages 5-11, meet this recommendation.


• Participation in school-based physical activity programs, such as school sports, promotes teamwork, physical fitness and connected- ness, which in turn may lower dropout rates.


• Gov. Schwarzenegger vetoed AB 2705 (Hall), which would have allowed communities the flexibility to apply for funding to open or create safe places for children to play. Examples include school facilities and other outdoor recreational facilities that could be used by the community during non-school hours. Had the bill passed, it would also have established minimum physical activity requirements in physical education classes and afterschool programs.


• Adolescents’ physical activity differs by gender. In California, adolescent girls tend to be less active than adolescent boys. The percentage of adolescent boys involved in at least one hour of physical activity every week day (20%) is twice as high as the percentage for adolescent girls (10%). Of those who are involved in at least one hour of physical activity five or more days per week, nearly half (48%) are adolescent boys and one-third (33 %) are adolescent girls.

Children’s Access to Healthy Beverages

• Children, ages 12-19, in the U.S. get 13% of their daily calories from sugar-sweetened beverages.


• 62% of California’s adolescents, ages 12-17, drink at least one soda or other sweetened beverage every day.


• 40% of California’s school districts report having no access to free drinking water during meals. SB 1413 (Leno), which goes into effect January 2011, requires school districts to make free, fresh drinking water available in school food service areas.


• Two million children in early learning settings throughout California stand to benefit from AB 2084 (Brownley), which promotes healthy eating habits. Effective January 2012, licensed child day care facilities will be required to offer nonfat or low-fat (1%) milk, provide clean and safe drinking water, limit 100% fruit juice to one serving per day, and eliminate offerings of sugar-sweetened beverages.

Children’s Access to Healthy Foods

• Fruits and vegetables have become more costly nationwide. Over the past 30 years, the cost of fruits and vegetables has risen nearly twice as fast as the cost of carbonated beverages.


• Economic disparities exist in access to healthy foods. Low-income neighborhoods have the lowest number of supermarkets and the highest number of fast food restaurants.


• California has 40 farm-to-school programs, which bring farm fresh fruits and vegetables into school lunches, benefiting 516 schools. Unfortunately, they serve only a fraction of the state’s approximately 9,900 schools.

Providing Healthy Foods and Snacks to Children and Families

• Federally-funded child nutrition programs, such as school lunch and breakfast, child care meals, afterschool snacks, summer foods, and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program, were reauthorized in 2010. This will ensure that the more than two million children in California who experience food insecurity have access to healthy meals. It also establishes standards for all foods sold outside the school meal programs, on school grounds and at anytime during the school day.


• California’s participation in CalFresh, known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in other states, is low. Only 44% of eligible families with children participate in the program; more than 800,000 eligible families with children do not participate in the program.


• The passage of AB 537 (Arambula) ensures fresh fruit and vegetables are more readily available to families that participate in CalFresh. This bill allows participating farmers to operate an Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) payment system at certified farmers markets and flea markets, if the markets do not already operate their own payment system.


• More than 2.1 million California students eat free or reduced-price lunches, but more than one million eligible students do not participate in the program. Since the state integrated its school nutrition certification program with the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CALPADS) last year, districts have enrolled hundreds of thousands of eligible children in school nutrition programs. Gov. Schwarzenegger, however, vetoed funding for CALPADS, putting on hold the U.S. Department of Education’s plans for enhancements that would have certified between 70,000 and 200,000 additional eligible students for free or reduced-price meals.

Children’s “Built” Environments

• Over the past 30 years, the percentage of students, ages 5-14, who usually walk or ride a bike to school has significantly decreased, from 48% in 1969 to only 13% in 2009. Significant income disparities exist in the number of children who walk to school. Children from high-income families are half as likely to walk to school as children from low-income families.


• Walking to school is one way to encourage physical activity. Yet, not all children can safely navigate the streets from home to school. Residents in low-income urban areas, who are more likely to be obese or overweight, report higher numbers of busy streets and lack of crosswalks and bike lanes, which jeopardize safety and create barriers to physical activity. Such barriers also likely decrease children’s safety. Children from low-income families are more likely to be injured or killed as pedestrians than children from higher income families.


• In 2010, California received $23 million as part of the continued federal Safe Routes to School program, which promotes safe bicycling and walking to and from school. Gov. Schwarzenegger vetoed AB 2147 (M. Perez), which would have allowed for improved targeting of funds to communities with the greatest need.


• Only two-thirds (64%) of California’s children live in neighborhoods with available playgrounds, community centers, sidewalks and/or walking paths.


• Access to safe outdoor places that promote physical activity can be challenging for low-income adolescents. Those who live in neighborhoods with a lower proportion of college-educated adults tend to get less physical activity and have less access to parks. Higher neighborhood education levels increase the percentage of teens with access to a safe park near their home (19% to 35%). Still, 25% of all teens report not having a safe park near their home.

Advertising to Children

• Children do not develop skills to recognize persuasive intent in advertising (the ability to discern commercial from non-commercial material) until ages 8-11. Therefore, younger children are especially vulnerable to the influence of advertisements until these skills develop.


• Television advertising has been shown to influence the food and beverage preferences, purchase requests, and consumption habits of children, ages 2-11. Yet, over two-thirds (69%) of all food advertising to children is for unhealthy food.


• In 2009, the fast food industry alone spent more than $4.2 billion in marketing to children. Young children, ages 2-5, see almost three fast food ads per day. Children, ages 6-11, see three-and-a-half fast food ads per day. And teens see almost five fast food ads per day. Since 2003, fast food marketing to children has increased by 34% for young children, ages 2-11, and 39% for teens.


• While television is the most common medium for food advertisements to children, representing an estimated 46% of youth-directed marketing expenditures, new media accounts for a growing 5% of these expenditures.

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