Defining Obesity in Children & Adolescents

Do you know that 5% - 25% of children and teenagers in the United States are obese?
(Dietz, 1983).

As with adults, the prevalence of obesity in the young varies by ethnic group:
It is estimated that 5-7 percent of White and Black children are obese,
while 12 percent of Hispanic boys and 19 percent of Hispanic girls are obese
(Office of Maternal and Child Health, 1989).

Some data indicates that obesity among children is on the rise.
The second National Children and Youth Fitness Study found 6-9 year olds to have thicker skinfolds than their counterparts in the 1960s.
(Ross & Pate, 1987).

During the same period, others documented a 54% increase in the prevalence of obesity among 6-11 year olds
(Gortmaker, Dietz, Sobol, & Wehler, 1987).

Obesity is known as an excessive accumulation of body fat.
Obesity is present when total body weight is more than 25% fat in boys and more than 32% fat in girls
(Lohman, 1987).

Although childhood obesity is often defined as a weight-for-height in excess of 120% of the ideal, skinfold measures are more accurate determinants of fatness
(Dietz, 1983; Lohman, 1987).

A trained technician may obtain skinfold measures relatively easily in either a school or clinical setting. The triceps alone, triceps and subscapular, triceps and calf, and calf alone have been used with children and adolescents.

When the triceps and calf are used, a sum of skinfolds of 10-25mm is considered optimal for boys, and 16-30mm is optimal for girls
(Lohman, 1987).