Health
Severe Obesity in US Children Has More Than Tripled Since 2008
A seventeen year-old stands on a scale in Reedley, California.
Photographer: Justin Sullivan/Getty ImagesThe proportion of severely overweight children in the US has skyrocketed in recent years, with the highest rates seen in adolescents and Black children, a new study found.
Roughly 23% of all children were obese in 2023, up from 19% in 2008, according to the survey published Wednesday in JAMA Network Open. Additionally, more than 1% of children between the ages of 2 and 18 had “extremely severe obesity” — a 250% increase from the start of the study, the researchers from the University of California, San Diego, found.