Indicator: 11 - Youth Obesity           

 

Why This Is Important

Persons who are overweight in adolescence are at greater risk of being overweight as adults,
and adults who are overweight are at higher risk of numerous health problems including
hypertension, coronary heart disease, gallbladder disease, non-B insulin dependent diabetes,
and some cancers. In the United States, the percentage of children ages 6 through 17 who
are overweight has increased more than twofold since the 1960’s, with the largest increase
in the 1980’s.

 

 

Where We Stand

Maine and national data from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) for 1995 through
2003 show that nearly one-third of high school students report they are slightly or very
overweight, with the percentage being slightly higher for Maine students. In Maine, 30% of
middle school students also reported they were overweight.

A higher percentage of girls than of boys typically reports being overweight. For example,
36.1% of the high school girls in the 2003 national survey sample said that they were to some
degree overweight, compared to 23.5% of the boys. Similarly, in the 2003 Maine survey 35%
of middle school girls and 41% of high school girls in the sample believed they were overweight;
only 26% of the boys in middle and 27% in high schools said this.

Of course, students may believe they are overweight when they are not. A more objective
measure of weight problems is a young person’s body mass index (BMI). Experts agree that
children with a BMI at or above the 95 th percentile of the sex-specific BMI growth charts can
be categorized as overweight. Using this definition, 13.5% of high school youth nationally were overweight in 2003 (17.4% of boys and 9.4% of girls). Similar data for Maine revealed that 13%
of middle school and of high school students were overweight. A higher percentage of Maine boys
than girls fell into this category (16% versus 9% in middle school, and 18% versus 8% in high
school), despite the fact that girls are more likely to see themselves as overweight.

 

 

Data Sources and Context

These data come from the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System maintained by the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Data from the Maine YRBS is available
on-line at http://www.mainecshp.com/survey.html. National YRBS figures can be found at http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dash/yrbs.

*Important Note: YRBS data is gathered every two years using a questionnaire administered
to a sample of students in Maine and nationally. When the Maine YRBS survey has an overall
response rate of 60% or higher, the CDC statistically weights the results so that the numbers
can be generalized to all public school students in the state in grades 9-12. When the overall
response rate is below 60%, the CDC does not perform such statistical weighting, and the data
apply only to the students who actually filled out the questionnaires. Maine’s YRBS data for 1999
was unweighted, so information from that year cannot be compared reliably with data from 1995, 1997, 2001 and 2003.