IU: Child obesity rates have risen in central Indiana since 2014
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Indiana University researchers have found childhood obesity in central Indiana has risen about 36% since 2014, affecting about one in five children between the ages of 2 and 19. The study notes half of that increase occurred during the pandemic.
The researchers from the IU Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health in Indianapolis looked at a dataset from Jan. 1, 2014, to Dec. 31, 2022 to build the report called “Weight Trends Among Children and Adolescents Within Central Indiana.”
“Having this data is a huge win for public health,” Thomas Duszynski, assistant professor at the Fairbanks School and an affiliated research scientist at the Regenstrief Institute, said in a news release. “We can’t begin to work on prevention and treatment until we understand the prevalence of an issue. And now, central Indiana has almost a decade of data that will create a baseline for health care providers and children’s health partners to track and identify obesity rates.”
The shows child obesity rates rose:
- 32% for girls.
- 39% for boys.
- 69% for Hispanics.
- 66% for Asians.
- 96% for 2- to 5-year-olds.
- 40% for 6- to 11-year-olds.
- 26% for 12- to 19-year-olds.
Marion County has the highest rates in the central Indiana region.
The study was funded by Jump IN for Healthy Kids, an Indianapolis-based organization created with the goal of empowering kids to live healthier lives. Data was provided by the Regenstrief Institute, Community Health Network, Ascension St. Vincent, Eskenazi Health, IU Health and other health providers and data sources in central Indiana.
“We can now strengthen prevention and intervention and more effectively address health inequities,” Jump IN CEO Julie Burns said in the release. “Further research may shed more light on both the decreases and increases we see in these data. We hope rates continue to decline to pre-pandemic levels as our community returns to the multi-sector, systems-level, collaborative strategies that research demonstrates improve child health and population obesity.”
Jump IN for Healthy Kids says it has secured funding to continue looking into this data through 2026.