The New England Journal of Medicine published a study 2/11/10 that showed that childhood obesity doubled the risk of early death, defined as death before age 55. Childhood obesity is defined as having a body mass index (BMI) in the 95th percentile.

The study followed 4857 American Indian children who were born between 1945 and 1984 for 23.9 years. Glucose intolerance (pre-diabetes) also increased the risk of early death by 73%. In addition, high blood pressure was strongly associated with premature death. 

Although the Pima Indians studied in this group had a higher rate of obesity and diabetes, the authors note that childhood prevalence of obesity in the 21st century among contemporary Hispanic and African-American children is similar to the group studied.  The authors write, “Thus, although we studied a population with high rates of obesity and diabetes, our findings may reflect the future burden of premature death among contemporary children from other ethnic groups and may be more generalizable than the findings in previous studies.”

We need to get behind the “Let’s Move” campaign to fight childhood obesity by offering healthy food in school cafeterias, and seriously considering the implementation of a sin tax on certain food/beverage items. Bringing back physical education in schools and making sure communities have sidewalks so that kids within walking distance can walk to school, would also help.

Yes, I understand how unpopular and costly some of these measures might be but consider the enormous economic impact obesity has on our health care system. When we start to see adult illnesses in children such as adult-onset diabetes, kidney failure secondary to diabetes, and coronary heart disease, then drastic measures may need to be taken.