ABSTRACT
Recent data suggest that rates of childhood obesity in the United States are no longer rising (1). This stabilization has provided optimism that clinical and public health efforts to stem the childhood obesity epidemic have begun to take effect (2). Consistent with these national findings, recent data from Philadelphia showed declines in obesity rates among students in grades kindergarten through 12; rates among students in grades kindergarten through 8 and among male students declined significantly. Among students in grades 9 through 12, the prevalence of obesity declined, although not significantly, between 2006-2007 and 2009-2010 (3). The confluence
of national attention to childhood obesity and programmatic and policybased interventions in Philadelphia may account for these declines (3).
