The Centers for Disease Control just released obesity numbers for pre-school aged children of low-income families, and nationally, the trend is generally positive. In Colorado though, the report showed an increase in obesity rates among these children.
The data pulls numbers from 2008 to 2011, and in Colorado, most numbers hovered around 9%. In 2011 though, they jumped to 10%. Tracy Miller is an Early Childhood Obesity Specialist with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. Miller says that jump doesn’t necessarily indicate a trend.
It’s one year of data, it’s not indicative of some sort of upward trend. And certainly, we’ve already seen in our 2012 data analysis that the prevalence was 8.4. So we’ll be watching over the next couple of years.
The sample size in 2011 was about half as in previous years, which Miller says is due to a change in computer systems. Miller says tracking trends takes time, and that they continue to work to try and prevent childhood obesity.
