African American, Hispanic American and Native American children and adolescents have particularly high overweight or obesity prevalence.
Overweight (85th percentile) and obesity (95th percentile) prevalence for children and adolescents is presented by racial characteristics in the following table.
| |
Children
(Ages 6 to 11)
Prevalence (%)
|
Adolescents
(Ages 12 to 19)
Prevalence (%)
|
| | | | |
|
Race
|
Overweight
|
Obesity
|
Overweight
|
Obesity
|
|
Black (Non-Hispanic)
|
35.9
|
19.5
|
40.4
|
23.6
|
|
Mexican American
|
39.3
|
23.7
|
43.8
|
23.4
|
|
White (Non-Hispanic)
|
26.2
|
11.8
|
26.5
|
12.7
|
|
Source: CDC, National Center for Health Statistics, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Ogden et. al. JAMA. 2002;288:1728-1732.
|
Among the female youth group, the highest overweight and obesity prevalence is found in black (non-Hispanic) girls (ages 6 to 11), 37.6 percent being overweight and 22.2 percent being obese, and black (non-Hispanic) adolescent females (ages 12 to 19), 45.5 percent being overweight and 26.6 percent being obese.
Among male youth, the highest overweight and obesity prevalence is found in Mexican American boys (ages 6 to 11), 43 percent being overweight and 27.3 percent being obese, and Mexican American adolescent males (ages 12 to 19), 44.2 percent being overweight and 27.5 percent being obese.
Overweight prevalence for Native American children and adolescents (ages 5 to 17) was reported in a 1999 study as 39 percent for males and 38 percent for females in the Aberdeen area Indian Health Service.
Asian American adolescents (ages 13 to 18) were reported to have an overweight prevalence of 20.6 percent in the 1996 National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health.
Asian-American and Hispanic-American adolescents born in the U.S. to immigrant parents are more than twice as likely to be overweight as foreign born adolescents who move to the U.S.
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