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SALT LAKE CITY — In the late 1990s, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported close to 5% of U.S. children and adolescents ages 2-19 could be diagnosed as obese, according to the body mass index readings.
This spring, the research agency reported that the number has nearly quadrupled in the 2020s to 19.7%. In Utah, that number is 12.2% — less than the national average but a statistic that is also growing rapidly.
This is especially the case among children living in rural areas in Utah. Many of those children are known as part of the rural poor and have a 1 in 4 chance of being diagnosed as obese. A group of researchers at University of Utah Health is hoping to find out why and what to do to turn these numbers around.
"We're going to focus on providing sustainable and evidenced-based approaches to support families ... and be able to achieve and maintain a healthy weight," said Paul Estabrooks, a University of Utah Health researcher involved in the study. "We want to try and support healthier eating and physical activity."
The new Mountain West Prevention Research Center will be housed at the University of Utah, with researchers across six states analyzing the nuances of childhood obesity and — more importantly — how to prevent it. The CDC awarded the center $5 million to study rural children in Utah, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Nevada and New Mexico.
The study will implement a Healthy Families CDC program for families as well as work with local health departments and cooperative extension programs to promote physical activity, disease prevention and a healthy weight for area children.
At a kickoff for the Mountain West Prevention Research Center this past week, researchers noted the need to study children in this part of the Mountain West. Staff will also work with the often overlooked rural communities within these states, impacting not only the needs of the children but those of the adults, as well.
"Parents are often willing to do for their kids what they're not willing to do for themselves," said Amy Locke, co-director of the Driving Diabetes Initiative and other programs at University of Utah Health. She is also involved in this research.
"The same things that put a child at risk for obesity are the same things that put an adult at risk for obesity," she said. "If you can start to change the culture of the family, you can start to see a big difference."
This is especially important given that obesity rates have also increased for adults across every demographic, even in Utah. Often, health standings are reported that place Utah on the healthier end of the spectrum, but that placement can be misleading, researchers say.
For example, Flex AI, a health and fitness company, recently named Utah the eighth least-obese state in the U.S. but did not acknowledge the increase in the rate from years prior, thus causing some to believe that work to change obesity numbers is working when that may not be the case.
As such, research will address not only what Mountain West Prevention Research Center staff find but also what needs to be done to improve the health of everyone in the family.
Researchers say the understanding and tools to live a healthy life will stay with youth for a lifetime, hopefully causing the adult numbers to decrease when these children get older.
"We have many, many chronic diseases — cardiovascular disease, diabetes — that through regular physical activity and healthy eating, we can avoid," Estabrooks said. "We can teach this while they are kids. And if so, we're not going to have to see them later on."
