Overweight Status of Adolescent Girls:Analyses of Data from the National Survey of Children's Health

High rates of adolescent obesity are a national public health concern and an important research topic in epidemiology. Adolescent obesity is a strong predictor of adult obesity and its resultant higher rates of coronary hearth disease, Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and mortality. Past studies find large differences in rates of adolescent obesity among non-Hispanic whites, blacks, and Hispanics, especially among girls, but family and social factors associated with differences are unclear.

We used data from the 2003 National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH), a national multistage cluster design sample of children less than 18 years of age, to look at the risk of overweight and overweight for adolescent (13-17) girls separately by race/ethnicity. We first enter age, followed by family background characteristics, residence, family socialization such as mother's exercise and smoking in the family and behavior of the adolescent such as computer hours, TV hours, and participation in exercise/sports teams. We find many differences in social factors by race/ethnicity. Among blacks, living with two parents and moving frequently are both associated with lower odds of being heavy. For white girls, the same variables are associated with greater odds of being heavy. Among white and Hispanic (but not black) girls, living with better educated parents, in small families, and being an only or oldest child were all protective against being heavy. Analyzing girls' behavior factors, for Hispanics only computer time is significant, for blacks only exercise matters, and for whites both variables plus participation on sports teams matter.