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
2005  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 2005 Maine
survey 35% of middle school girls and  36% of high school girls in the sample believed they
were overweight; only 26% of the boys in middle and 25 % 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 95th 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 in 2005 revealed that 12% of middle school and of high school students were overweight.
A higher percentage of Maine boys than girls fell into this category (16% versus 8% in middle school, and 15% versus  6% 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. National YRBS data for 2005 will be updated in
Summer 2006.

*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, 2003 and 2005.