According to reports, a new study shows that the obesity rate among U.S. children between ages of 3 and 19 rose to 17.5 percent by 2012 and just to 13 percent in Canada. In the late 1970s in both the U.S. and Canada, the obesity rate among children and teens was about 5 percent. The study was released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The only good news is that the rates have leveled off in the last 10 years in both countries.
The study did analyze the reasons that could be accounting for this divide. According to scientists, among possible causes might be included a heavier market for fast food and beverages and heavier consumption of sodas and snack foods in the U.S.
Given that the United Stated and Canada share a common language and culture, these findings could open up an exciting new field of obesity research, according to Peter Katzmarzyk, a professor of pediatric obesity and diabetes at Louisiana State University's Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge.
Katzmarzyk added that since no one really conducted a study to uncover the factors contributing to this difference, scientists will have the opportunity to explore further details on the reasons for these differences and maybe also find some means for intervention.
According to scientists, obese children are at greater risk of becoming obese adults. Obesity can lead to developing various health problems, including diabetes and heart disease. They are also at a more immediate risk of social problems, elevated cholesterol and high blood pressure, according to the researchers who performed the study. The report with their findings was published in the CDC's NCHS Data Brief, in the August issue.
American and Canadian epidemiologists and statisticians collaborated in the CDC study in order to create a proper comparison of childhood and teen obesity in the two countries. According to the study lead author Cynthia Ogden, an epidemiologist at the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), both countries also experienced a steady increase in childhood obesity through the 1980s and 1990s. But U.S. kids experienced a greater increase afterward, for yet-unknown reasons.
According to Kristi King, a clinical instructor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, children in the two countries appear to diverge around the time they enter school.
