Preschool Overweight Prevalence using PedNSS

[Kuester, Sarah]

Pardon my crossposting.

Hello. Below is the abstract of a recent Pediatrics article describing
the prevalence of overweight in low-income preschool children 
using data from the CDC Pediatric Nutrition Surveillance System
(PedNSS).

Thank you,
Sarah Kuester
Public Health Nutritionist
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
sak2 at cdc.gov 

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Source: http://www.pediatrics.org/cgi/content/full/101/1/e12

PLEASE NOTE:  This article is only available through
Pediatric's web site at http://www.pediatrics.org/.

Increasing Prevalence of Overweight Among US Low-income 
Preschool Children: The Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention Pediatric Nutrition Surveillance, 1983 to 1995.  
Pediatrics.  101(1:January 1998), p. e12.  

Zuguo Mei*, Kelley S. Scanlon*, Laurence M. Grummer-Strawn*, 
David S. Freedman*, Ray Yip, and Frederick L. Trowbridge* 


>From the * Division of Nutrition and Physical Activity, Centers for 

Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia; and the
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Jakarta, Indonesia. 
  
       ABSTRACT

Objective.  To determine whether the prevalence of overweight in 
preschool children has increased among the US low-income population. 

Design.  Analysis using weight-for-height percentiles of surveillance 
data adjusted for age, sex, and race or ethnicity. 

Setting.  Data from 18 states and the District of Columbia were
examined.

Subjects.  Low-income children <5 years of age who were included 
in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Pediatric Nutrition 
Surveillance System. 

Results.  The prevalence of overweight increased from 18.6% in 
1983 to 21.6% in 1995 based on the 85th percentile cutoff point 
for weight-for-height, and from 8.5% to 10.2% for the same period 
based on the 95th percentile cutoff point. Analyses by single age, sex, 
and race or ethnic group (non-Hispanic white, non-Hispanic black, 
and Hispanic) all showed increases in the prevalence of overweight, 
although changes are greatest for older preschool children. 

Conclusion.  Overweight is an increasing public health problem among 
preschool children in the US low-income population. Additional research 
is needed to explore the cause of the trend observed and to find
effective 
strategies for overweight prevention beginning in the preschool years. 

Key words: overweight, obesity, prevalence, preschool children,
weight-for-height.