Overweight

Indicator Definition
“Overweight” among adolescents is defined as having a Body Mass Index (BMI) at or above the 95th percentile on the gender- and age-specific revised Growth Charts of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). BMI for children and adolescents is a number calculated from their weight and height. BMI measurements for children and adolescents reflect normal differences in body fat between boys and girls while considering differences in body fat at various ages.¹

Overweight adolescents in Colorado6

Overweight adolescents by sex and race in Colorado7

Indicator Significance
According to CDC, more than 18 percent of all children and adolescents ages 6 – 19 are overweight, which can lead to obesity if left untreated. Being overweight is a serious health issue affecting a growing number of adolescents, threatening their quality of life and putting them at increased risk for chronic disease as adults. Once an adolescent has become overweight, it is likely he or she will carry into adulthood the excess weight and other related conditions leading to poor health. Even when excess weight is lost, overweight teenagers maintain increased risk factors for coronary artery disease and stroke as adults.²

Colorado Specifics
Although Colorado has one of the lowest percentages of overweight high school students in the country, more of them have become overweight in the past six years, as have Coloradans in general. High school-aged boys are twice as likely to be overweight than are girls, and Hispanic students are twice as likely to be overweight than their white peers.³

Promising Initiatives
In Colorado
Colorado Connections for Healthy Schools (CCHS) is a coalition that includes the Colorado Department of Education and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s school-aged children. CCHS has developed a Healthy Kids Colorado Survey (HKCS) administered to high school students that focuses on physical activity as it is a gateway to other health-related issues such as poor nutrition, overweight, obesity and diabetes. Based on findings from the 2005 – 06 survey, CCHS has developed a comprehensive curriculum for schools that includes physical education and nutrition classes.⁴

Elsewhere
In 2005, Morristown Memorial Hospital in New Jersey was awarded a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) to create a Web-based nutrition and fitness program. This initiative, entitled Project TeenFit, is an online obesity-prevention program for adolescents that works in conjunction with the hospital’s other award-winning site, teenhealthFX.com. Since teenagers seek information from the Internet, the health professionals at Morristown Memorial wanted to create a space where teens can ask questions and receive responses not only from doctors but also from other teens. The goal is to educate and to inform students, while instilling long-term and effective behavior changes.⁵

Overweight adolescents⁸

Text

1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Growth Charts
   
2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Obesity and Overweight,”
   
3. Irene Alton, “The Overweight Adolescent,” University of Minnesota School of Public Health, Epidemiology and Community Health publications
   
   “Prevention and Treatment of Overweight in Children and Adolescents,” American Family Physician, June 1, 2004
   
   
4. Colorado Department of Education
   
5. Morristown Memorial Hospital
   
   Teen Health FX.com
   

Charts

6. Source: Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 2001 – 2005
   
7. Source: Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 2005
   
8. Source: National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Healthy Youth, 2005, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention