Trends in Abdominal Obesity Among US Children and Adolescents

OBJECTIVES: Previous studies showed that prevalence of abdominal obesity among US children and adolescents increased significantly between 1988-1994 and 2003-2004. However, little is known about recent time trends in abdominal obesity since 2003-2004. This study was to provide recent updated national estimates of childhood abdominal obesity and examine the trends in childhood abdominal obesity from 2003 to 2012. METHODS: Data were from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) conducted during 5 time periods (2003-2004, 2005-2006, 2007-2008, 2009-2010, and 2011-2012). A total of 16 601 US children and adolescents aged 2 to 18 years were included. Abdominal obesity is defined as a waist circumference (WC) >= gender-and age-specific 90th percentile based on data from NHANES III (1988-1994) and a waist-to-height (WHtR) >= 0.5, respectively. RESULTS: In 2011-2012, 17.95% of children and adolescents aged 2 to 18 years were abdominally obese defined by WC, and 32.93% of those aged 6 to 18 years were abdominally obese defined by WHtR. Mean WC and WHtR and prevalence of abdominal obesity kept stable between 2003-2004 and 2011-2012, independently of gender, age, and race/ethnicity. However, there was a significant decrease in abdominal obesity among children aged 2 to 5 years. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of abdominal obesity leveled off among US children and adolescents from 2003-2004 to 2011-2012.