Adolescent Obesity Rate Approaches Adult Levels In State

A new national report shows almost one in three Wisconsin adolescents are overweight or obese.

The 2016 National Survey of Children’s Health shows 30 percent of kids in Wisconsin ages 10 to 17 are overweight or obese.

Utah had the lowest percentage of overweight adolescents at 19 percent. Tennessee had the highest, nearly 38 percent. The national average of obese children and teens was just over 31 percent, according to the survey.

Height and weight measurements used to calculate body mass index, or BMI, also show Wisconsin youth are catching up to the state’s adult rate of obesity: 31 percent, according to the report.

“Children are very highly influenced on what adults are doing,” said Marisa Pruitt, a registered dietician at Gundersen Health in La Crosse. “So if we have families that are just growing in general, of course the children would be growing as well, and so the obesity rate, though it isn’t surprising, is still something that is alarming.”

Health officials, schools and the La Crosse community are joining parents in trying to address the problem.

“We’re encouraging families to provide five or more servings of fruit and vegetables a day, two hours or less of recreational screen time, one hour of physical activity and zero sugar-sweetened beverages and an emphasis on increasing water,” Pruitt said.

Obesity can contribute to health problems such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol in children.

“And these are diseases that historically have been seen in middle-aged adults and now we’re seeing them in young children, and that’s very alarming,” Pruitt said.

She said locally, obesity in children has leveled off, but adult obesity continues to grow.

The National Survey of Children’s Health has not been collecting data every year, and caution against comparing this survey to previous ones because of a change in methodology. The last time NSCH conducted a survey of childhood obesity rates was at least five years ago. NSCH plans to begin annual surveys.