Daily HealthBeat Tip

Wider kids

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I�m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

The size of a grownup�s waist can indicate his or her risk of developing diabetes and heart disease. So it doesn�t say much good that children these days have to let their belts compared with kids in the past.

Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention looked at waist measurements in surveys of young people from ages 2 to 19. Their findings are in the American Academy of Pediatrics� journal Pediatrics.

The CDC�s Chaoyang Li says the proportion of boys who had abdominal obesity grew by 65 percent, and girls by 70 percent, from 1988 to 2004.

Li says there�s no firm rule on how wide is too wide. But he says:

"A simple message � keep your waistline less than half your height � might be useful in monitoring kids� weight." (seven seconds)

Learn more at www.hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: November 6, 2006

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