Childhood obesity: an issue for public health advocates, researchers, and community development practitioners

Obesity rates for U.S. children have risen precipitously over the past 20 years. According to data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys from 1999?2002, 15 percent of children on average, ages 2?19 are obese. With little evidence that individual weight loss programs can solve the problem, attention is increasingly turning to the environment in which children live, in an effort to understand both the causes of and potential solutions to childhood obesity. Drawing on recent research, this article provides an overview of childhood obesity trends from the 1970s to 2002, explains briefly why obesity is a matter of concern, and discusses why this issue may overlap with the interests of community development practitioners. Many of the potential causes explored in the research literature involve topics that relate to community development. These topics include school budgets, lack of access to supermarkets in certain neighborhoods, the location of public buildings and amenities, and the increase in dual-career and single-parent working families. These issues suggest that community development practitioners have a role in understanding the social and institutional forces that may have contributed to the surge in childhood obesity. Along with public health advocates, city planners, and researchers, community development experts also have a role in developing policies that address the problem.