Dietary habits, demographics, and the development of overweight and obesity among children in the United States

This study uses a multinomial logistic regression and data from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals (CSFII) to examine the factors that influence overweight and obesity among school-age children in the United States. Results show that Black and Hispanic children seem to associate more with the development of at risk for being overweight and overweight. Poverty is another major variable that positively associates with overweight among school-age children. Frequency of physical exercises was found to be positively associated with normal weight and that sedentary behavior was negatively associated with normal weight and positively associated with overweight among children of ages between 12 and 18. The consumption of low fat milk, other dairy products, fruits and legumes is negatively associated with the probabilities of being at risk for overweight and overweight among school-age children. In contrast, increasing consumption of soft drinks, fat and oils, and sodium appears to be the major dietary factors that positively associated with childhood over-weight. (C) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.