Major Risk Factors For Childhood Obesity Lie Outside School

AUSTIN, Texas - Increases in overweight and obesity rates among young children occur during summer vacations, not during the school year, according to new research from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin. Paul von Hippel, an associate professor of public affairs at the LBJ School, examined body mass index (BMI) and obesity prevalence in a nationally representative sample of 18,170 children from the start of kindergarten in 2010 through the end of second grade in 2013. The results, published in the journal Obesity , provide insight into whether the causes of childhood obesity lie primarily inside or outside of schools. Between the start of kindergarten and the end of second grade, all of the increases in overweight and obesity prevalence occurred during the two summer vacations, not during the three school years. This study is the second nationally representative analysis of seasonal BMI gain. The first , which was co-authored by von Hippel and published in 2007 in the American Journal of Public Health , found that children gained weight faster during summer vacation than during the kindergarten and first-grade school years. However, that earlier study only followed children through first grade, and the results of the earlier study are outdated since the children who participated are now in their early 20s.