Trends in Prevalence of Obesity among Mississippi Public School Students: 2005-2011

Background and objective: Mississippi has been one of the states that have the highest prevalence in childhood obesity. This study is to estimate the prevalence and trends in obesity among children in grades K-12 in Mississippi using height and weight measures from the 2005, 2007, 2009, and 2011 Child and Youth Prevalence of Obesity Survey (CAYPOS).

Methods: The sample design for CAYPOS was a two-stage stratified probability design. The first stage included the random selection of the schools drawn with probability proportional to the enrollment size. In the second stage, classes were randomly selected within the sampled schools. The data from the four consecutive surveys were combined. The logistic regression used orthogonal coefficients to model longitudinal trends while controlling for students' gender, race, and grade level. SUDAAN 10.0 was used for all data analysis.

Results: The prevalence of obesity has leveled from 25.5% in 2005 to 23.7% in 2011 (p = 0.2921). Race (p < 0.0001) and grade (p = 0.0048) were significant factors associated with obesity. In addition, the prevalence of obesity among white students has shown a significant linear decline from 22.9% in 2005 to 19.5% in 2011 (p = 0.0158).

Conclusion: The prevalence of obesity for all students in grades K-12 no longer appears to be increasing. In addition, a significant drop has been observed among white students. The findings suggested that state-wide educational initiatives in preventing obesity may have an effect on weight status of children in Mississippi public schools.