Obesity

Risk Factors

The method of determining if a child fits the criteria of obesity is the calculation of the child's body mass index (BMI). A BMI is traditionally attained by calculating a person's weight-to-height ratio. For children, BMI is calculated the same as an adult, but more information is taken into account because children are still growing, and a given BMI may be significant now but not be significant in 2 months. Instead, the BMI for children and adolescents (ages 2–19) is determined according to their sex, age (in months), and height percentiles in conjunction with a growth chart. Children under the 5th percentile of the growth chart are considered to be underweight. Children from the 5th to 84th percentile of the growth chart are considered to be in the normal range of weight. Children between the 85th and 95th percentile are at risk of being over-weight. Children and adolescents over the 95th percentile are considered over-weight.

For almost all children, the single risk factor of weight gain that can place a child in danger of becoming over-weight is the consumption of more calories than the number of calories expended. In combination with excess caloric intake, a number of variables can compound or place some children at a higher risk of being over-weight. A cause often cited by the parents and children who are obese is a medical, hormonal, or genetic condition. Conditions that can contribute to weight gain in childhood include Prader-Willi, Bardet-Biedl syndrome, Cushing syndrome, hypothyroidism, side effects of medicine, and family history. Although some children do have weight problems due to medical or genetic conditions that affect their body's ability to properly process or store calories, research has found those causes to be rare, instead [Page 740]finding that the overwhelming majority of cases of childhood obesity are due to lifestyle factors.

Lifestyle factors have changed as the course of industrialization has changed and technological advances in society have been made. As technology has evolved, the roles of children have changed. Children no longer need to work on their family farms for basic sustenance or walk any distance to get necessary services. Children of industrialized nations have access to more food and have to exert little, if any, physical effort to get it—the polar opposite of reality for many children 50 years ago.

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