Childhood obesity sees decline in 19 states

After decades on the rise, obesity rates declined slightly among low-income preschoolers in California and 18 other states and U.S. territories between 2008 and 2011, according to a report released Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The percentage of low-income obese children ages 2 to 4 dipped from 17.3 percent to 16.8 percent in the state. That percentage was still well above the 12 percent of preschoolers considered obese nationally.

The study is only the latest to signify that California is making some progress in its efforts to combat childhood obesity, though that progress is certainly slow.

"It shows that obesity rates are perhaps going to level out," said Dr. Harold Goldstein, executive director of the California Center for Public Health Advocacy. "It means that there's some progress, but there's still a lot of work we need to do."

The report found that obesity rates fell by at least 1 percent in Florida, Georgia, Missouri, New Jersey, South Dakota and the U.S. Virgin Islands. They dipped by a smaller amount in 13 other states. Three states experienced a slight increase in obesity rates, while 20 states and Puerto Rico stayed the same. Eight states were not included in the report.

The decline in California was "small, but significant," said Ashleigh May, a CDC epidemiologist and lead author of the study. That significance comes from the fact that the numbers are not increasing.

Also notable is that the demographic studied, low-income children, are at a heightened risk for obesity compared with other population groups.

In California, other recent studies have shown that childhood obesity rates are headed slowly in the right direction. A UC Davis study released in February 2012 that looked at state childhood obesity rates between 2003 and 2011 found that while rates were still on the rise, that rate of increase had declined.

A 2011 study by UCLA and the California Center for Public Health Advocacy found that the percentage of overweight and obese children in the state had declined by 1.1 percent from 2005 to 2010. That study found that the Bay Area fell below the statewide average, though its rates of overweight and obese children had actually increased.

The CDC attributed the declines noted in the latest report in part to state and local efforts against childhood obesity. The California Department of Health funds obesity prevention programs throughout the state. Measures have also been taken to increase the quality of food in schools.

In the Bay Area, several health care institutions, including Children's Hospital Oakland, offer weight-management programs for children. In the hospital's Healthy Hearts program, doctors, nutritionists and psychologists work with kids, teens and their parents on everything from increasing exercise and activity to portion control.

"Early prevention is the best route to preventing obesity," said Dr. June Tester, co-director of the program. Children are five times more likely to be overweight or obese as adults if they are overweight or obese between the ages of 3 and 5. About 10 percent of the program's patients are preschool-age, she said.

"There's a movement. A lot more people are aware of what we should be feeding little kids," she said. "It's not surprising that we would see our younger kids improve first. They're sort of leading the tide."

For the CDC report, researchers analyzed weight and height data from the Pediatric Nutrition Surveillance System for nearly 12 million preschool children who participate in federally funded maternal- and child-nutrition programs.

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