ABSTRACT
Overweight and obesity * among children and adolescents in the United States have reached epidemic proportions. While some data suggest that the prevalence of overweight among youth has stabilized (Ogden, Carroll, & Flegal, 2008), significant increases in weight among children and adolescents have been documented over the past few decades. Some estimate a 39% increase in obesity in the late twentieth century (Troiano & Flegal, 1998), with the greatest increases in weight occurring at the highest end of the weight continuum (Flegal & Troiano, 2000). Obese youth are at risk for developing significant and debilitating medical complications, including early-onset Type 2 diabetes, hyptertension, hyperlipidemia, polycystic ovarian syndrome, and obstructive sleep apnea (S. Baker et al., 2005; Lee, 2007). Conditions such as Type 2 diabetes, previously considered a disease of adulthood, are now much more common in youth as a result of increasing rates of overweight (Rosenbloom, Joe, Young, & Winter, 1999). Weight status during adolescence can have a significant impact on medical complications later in life (Srinivasan, Bao, Wattigney, & Berenson, 1996; Thompson et al., 2007; Yarnell, Patterson, Thomas, & Sweetnam, 2000). As weight and age increase during childhood, so does risk for serious medical complications in adulthood, including coronary heart disease. The strongest prediction of risk for coronary heart disease occurs during adolescence (J.L. Baker, Olsen, & Sorensen, 2007), and excess weight in adolescence exerts a significant negative impact on multiple cardiovascular risk factors (Srinivasan et al., 1996), including risk for mortality (Yarnell et al., 2000). In comparison to healthy youth, obese children and adolescents report significantly impaired health-related quality of life, and indicate quality of life scores similar to those of children and adolescents with cancer (Schwimmer, Burwinkle, & Varni, 2003). These data suggest that the proportion of youth currently classified as overweight or obese represents a public health crisis.
