Study: Texas kids fatter than others

The children were measured by their body mass index.
HOUSTON (AP) -- Texas children are among the fattest in the nation, with black and Hispanic kids exhibiting the highest risk for being overweight, a study shows.
Texas fourth-graders were overweight at a rate 46 percent higher than children of similar age elsewhere in the country, said Deanna Hoelscher, principal investigator of the study, conducted by the University of Texas School of Public Health.
"Parents do need to watch this in their kids," she said. "What this means is being overweight is a health risk for kids. Parents need to look at that as something they need to take some measures to prevent."
Researchers collected data from more than 6,000 pupils in 30 schools districts and 132 schools throughout Texas from 1999 to 2001. Hoelscher said the study is one of the first to gather statewide data based on measured height and weight of elementary and secondary pupils.
Obesity is defined by a formula involving height and weight, called the body mass index, or BMI. A BMI of 18 to 25 is considered healthy. People with a BMI over 25 are considered overweight and those whose BMI is 30 or more are classified as obese.
Statistics
The Texas study, which will be published in next month's American Journal of Public Health, found 22 percent of fourth-graders, 19 percent of eighth-graders and nearly 16 percent of 11th-graders were overweight. Data from the study's first year were released Thursday.
Hoelscher said that national figures aren't broken up by specific school grades but that the most recent ones show 15.3 percent of children ages 6 to 11 were overweight, while 15.5 percent of kids ages 12 to 19 were carrying extra pounds.
The federal government has set a goal of having only 5 percent of school-aged children classified as overweight by 2010.
"We're not close to that," said Hoelscher, who is also director of the public health school's human nutrition center.
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