Ethnicity has always been an important factor in measuring obesity in the population. Public health researchers looking at rates across the state have found that while there are the same or fewer fat children among whites, Asians and Hispanics, obesity in other groups has risen, the San Francisco Chronicle reported this week.
The study by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, found that there has been an increase in youth obesity in black and American Indian girls.
“While the decline and stabilization of obesity among certain groups is encouraging,” said Kristine Madsen, an assistant professor of pediatrics at UCSF, one of the authors of the study, “we are seeing an increase in disparities that is troubling, especially among the most severely obese youth.”
The study looked at the body mass index — a measure of fat based on height and weight — of adolescents between 2001 and 2008. Children are considered obese if they are in the 95th percentile, and overly obese if they are in the 99th percentile.
The data revealed a decline in the number of obese white and Asian children. But it also showed an increase of 22 percent among black girls and 23 percent among American Indian girls.
San Francisco faces a similar problem of racial disparities in obese youth.
Black, Hispanic and Pacific Islander children represented the lowest percentages with a healthy weight in San Francisco in 2008, according to the California Department of Education.
In San Francisco, one program started by Mayor Gavin Newsom, Shape Up SF, encourages residents to purchase and eat healthier foods. The program also recommends drinking water rather than sugared beverages, said Christina Goette, a coordinator for the program. Recreation and Parks summer camps also endorse the soda-free life.
Shape Up SF is also working on ways to get healthier fruits and vegetables into neighborhoods where fresh produce is scarce. “We hope more neighborhood grocery stores will provide healthier choices for residents,” Goette said.
