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Youths' Weight and Eating Patterns Fall Short of Healthy People 2010 Objectives
The Healthy People 2010 Objectives aim to increase quality and years of healthy life, and eliminate health disparities among people in the United States. The gaps between current weights and eating patterns of U.S. adolescents and the goals set out by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in the Objectives will be challenging to bridge over the next 7 years. In a recently published paper, researchers at the University of Minnesota uncover just how large these gaps are.
Participants
were divided equally by sex, with a mean age of about 15 years. Almost
half of participants were white, 19 percent were African American, 19
percent Asian American, 6 percent Hispanic, 4 percent American Indian,
and 4 percent were of mixed backgrounds or classified themselves as other.
Researchers assessed eating patterns with the Youth and Adolescent Food Frequency Questionnaire. Students self-reported sex, school level, race/ethnicity, and socio-economic status (SES); SES was based on level of parental education. The results reveal several patterns.
OverweightSignificantly more boys than girls had body mass index (BMI) values at or greater than the 95th percentile. Among boys, American Indians had the highest levels of overweight, followed by Hispanics. Among girls, African Americans had the highest levels, followed by American Indians. The highest levels of overweight girls were seen in middle- and low-middle SES groups. Among boys, those of low SES were almost twice as likely to be overweight as boys of high SES.
Dietary FatMore girls than boys met dietary recommendations to eat 30 percent or fewer calories from fat, and girls in high school ate less fat than younger girls. African American youths were the least likely to meet dietary fat recommendations. More boys and girls of low SES ate over 30 percent of calories from fat than youths of higher SES.
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