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Updated Childhood Overweight and Obesity data for 10-17-year-olds released

As our kids go back to school, we want to ensure that they have the healthiest school day possible. This week, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Trust for America’s Health, along with the Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative (CHAMI), announced the new overweight and obesity data for children between the 10-17-year-old.

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obesity.pngYou can view the interactive national map here. Key findings include:

- Roughly three out of 10 young people in the United States, 31.2 percent, are overweight or obese.

- Seven states – Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Tennessee, and West Virginia – have rates of overweight and obesity that exceed 35 percent.

- Only one state, Utah, has a rate under 20 percent.

Visit stateofobesity.org for maps and briefs showing each state's status on a wide variety of policies aimed at preventing obesity in early childhood, in schools, and in communities and for an updated toolkit that includes sample social shares to help you promote the new youth findings.

Nancy Brown, American Heart Association CEO, comments on the 2016 National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH) released earlier this week.

“Community leaders in every state must remain vigilant in making progress for the sake of our children’s health. While there are glimpses of progress in some states based on the new National Survey of Children’s Health, the fact remains that 3 out of 10 children ages 10-17 are either overweight or obese, putting them at increased risk of developing lifelong chronic diseases. Continuing to improve access to healthy, affordable foods throughout every child’s day is critical to heart health. As a nation, our work to improve nutrition and physical activity begins in early child care, every school and neighborhood. Recent data shows that children as young as 11 from socially and economically disadvantaged families and neighborhoods appear more likely to have thicker carotid artery walls, which in adults may indicate higher risk for heart attack and stroke in later life. Elected officials at every level of government should consider this a call to action for doubling down on investments in better nutrition and physical activity starting in the earliest years of life.”

An opinion editorial urging Congress and the Administration to “stop moving in the wrong direction” and protect advancements made in recent years on federal nutrition policy—including upholding school meal nutrition standards, rejecting proposed cuts to SNAP and Medicaid, and restoring full funding to the CDC, authored by Richard Besser, MD, president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and John Auerbach, president and CEO of Trust for America’s Health was published in The Hill on September 20. Read it here.

View American Heart Association’s original article here.

View the State of Obesity report for children here.