EthnicMajority

(USA Today) While some research suggests that the incidence of childhood obesity may be leveling off, a new study finds that for certain racial groups the rates may actually be getting higher.

The study, to be published in the September issue of Pediatrics, finds that black, Hispanic and American Indian girls have two to three times higher odds of having a high body-mass index (BMI) compared to white girls.

What’s more, although rates of obesity peaked for Hispanic girls in 2005, they have kept on rising for American Indian and black girls.

“What was encouraging was that we saw some decline in obesity, (but) we saw an increase in the racial disparities. So, whatever policies we’re putting in place probably aren’t having the effect we want for all groups,” said study author Dr. Kristine Madsen, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco.

“Unfortunately, today’s policies may be increasing the disparities in childhood obesity, and we need to target the communities that get left behind,” she said.

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(WebMD) Obesity rates among children appear to be dropping for some groups, but not for all, new research suggests.

An analysis including more than 8 million California children and teens showed encouraging declines in obesity following a peak in 2005 among Asian and white boys and girls and among Hispanic boys.

But obesity continued to climb among African-American and American Indian girls and remained stable for Hispanic girls.

And public health efforts aimed at addressing the obesity epidemic do not appear to have had much impact for the heaviest children — those with body mass indexes (BMIs) in the 99th percentile.

The findings can be viewed as both an encouraging and troubling report card on these efforts, researcher Kristine Madsen, MD, MPH, of the University of California, San Francisco, tells WebMD.

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