Pan L, et al. - A scrutiny was conducted of the trends in severe obesity by age, sex, and race/ethnicity among enrollees in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) aged 2 to 4 years during 2000 to 2014. Updated prevalence and trends of severe obesity were yielded among young children enrolled in WIC. Recent modest declines were disclosed in severe obesity among all subgroups. It was determined that ongoing surveillance could examine if declines continued into the future among low-income children.

Methods

• Researchers examined the serial cross-sectional data from 22.6 million young children enrolled in WIC from 50 states, the District of Columbia, and 5 US territories from 2000 to 2014.
• It was carried out from February 16, 2017 to March 9, 2017.
• The primary outcome included the prevalence of severe obesity.
• Severe obesity was defined as a sex-specific body mass index-for-age 120% or more of the 95th percentile on the 2000 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention growth charts.
• An estimation was performed of the children’s weights and heights.
• The exclusion criteria included children whose sex, weight, height, or body mass index was missing or biologically implausible.

Results

• As per the yielded data, the prevalence of severe obesity was found to be 1.96% in 2014.
• An overall substantial rise was noted in the prevalence from 1.80% to 2.11% (adjusted prevalence difference [APD], 0.26%) and among all the age, sex, and racial/ethnic groups except for Asian/Pacific Islander (APD, 0.05%-0.54% across groups with increases) during 2000 to 2004.
• The occurrence of largest relative increase was discovered among children aged 4 years (adjusted prevalence ratio [APR], 1.21) and non-Hispanic white (APR, 1.22) and American Indian/Alaska Native children (APR, 1.19).
• An overall considerable decrease was reported in the prevalence (APD, -0.05%), among boys, children aged 2 and 3 years, and non-Hispanic black and Asian/Pacific Islander children (APD, -0.05% to -0.18%) during 2004 to 2010.
• During 2010 to 2014, the prevalence appeared to decrease notably overall from 2.12% to 1.96% (APD, -0.14%) and among all demographic groups (APD, -0.04% to -0.30% across groups).
• In children aged 2 years (APR, 0.88) and Hispanic (APR, 0.92), American Indian/Alaska Native (APR, 0.89), and Asian/Pacific Islander (APR, 0.87) children, the occurrence of largest relative decrease was disclosed.