Identifying overweight high school students: prevalence of overweight in an ethnically diverse adolescent population in two Connecticut high schools.
BACKGROUND
The Third National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey, 1988-1994 (NHANES III) found that 11.5% of adolescents aged 12-17 years were overweight, and NHANES 1999-2000 found that 15.5% of adolescents aged 12-19 years were overweight.


METHODS
Body Mass Indices and percentiles were obtained using medical records from 790 white, black, Hispanic, and Asian 11th-grade students.


RESULTS
Contrasted with NHANES 1999-2000, this study found a higher prevalence of overweight among white males, a lower prevalence among blacks (both sexes), a lower prevalence among Hispanics than NHANES 1999-2000 found among Mexican Americans (both sexes), and a lower prevalence among all adolescents sampled. It found overweight in females highest in blacks and at risk of overweight highest among blacks and Hispanics (both sexes).


CONCLUSIONS
Public attention should be focused on the high prevalence of overweight and at risk of overweight, particularly among minority high school students. Overweight and at risk of overweight students can be relatively easily identified by utilizing available medical records. Treatment and prevention efforts can then be initiated.
Department of Pediatrics, Lutheran Medical Center, Brooklyn, New York, USA.
Marilyn
M
Ross
D000293:Adolescent; D015992:Body Mass Index; D003237:Connecticut / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening; D009749:Nutrition Surveys; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000208:ethnology; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors