US child obesity may be stabilizing after huge rise: study

0 Comments | AFP, May, 2008

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The obesity rate among American children and teenagers may have stabilized after a dramatic rise in the 1980s and 1990s that has been described as an epidemic, according to a US study on Wednesday.

The study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), based on a national health survey, found no significant change in the obesity rate between 1999 and 2006.

Led by Cynthia Ogden of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), researchers reviewed the survey of more than 8,000 children and teens aged between two and 19 conducted between 2003-2004 and 2005-2006.

The study found that 31.9 percent of the children were overweight, while 16 percent were obese and 11 percent extremely obese. The rates were nearly...