title: Secular Trends of Overweight and Obesity in Young Southern Californians 2008-2013.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate secular trends in pediatric obesity in Southern California between 2008 and 2013.
  
  
  METHODS
  In a population-based cohort study, measured weight and height were extracted from electronic health records of 1,331,931 patients aged 2-19 years who were enrolled in an integrated prepaid health plan between 2008 and 2013. Outcomes were the prevalence of overweight and obesity (body mass index-for-age ≥85th percentile).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The prevalence of obesity was 19.1% in 2008 and decreased by 1.6% (95% CI, 1.7%-1.5%) by 2013, corresponding to a relative decline of 8.4%. A significant decline was observed across all ages, sexes, races, and socioeconomic groups, but the magnitude of the decrease varied. The relative decline in obesity was stronger in boys (-9.3%) than in girls (-7.2%), in children aged 2-5 years (-15.4%) and 6-11 years (-11.8%) than in adolescents aged 12-19 years (-4.5%), and in whites (-12.6%) and Asians (-12.2%) than in Hispanics (-6.9%) and African Americans (-7.5%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Secular trends from this large population-based cohort suggest that overweight and obesity in boys and girls are declining across age and racial/ethnic groups. However, the declines are less pronounced in adolescents compared with children, in girls, and in some minority groups. Programs addressing childhood obesity may need to be targeted.
authors.affiliation: Department of Research and Evaluation, Kaiser Permanente Southern California, Pasadena, CA. Electronic address: Corinna.Koebnick@kp.org.
authors.forename: Corinna
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Koebnick
authors.affiliation: Department of Research and Evaluation, Kaiser Permanente Southern California, Pasadena, CA.
authors.forename: Yasmina D
authors.initials: YD
authors.lastname: Mohan
authors.affiliation: Department of Research and Evaluation, Kaiser Permanente Southern California, Pasadena, CA.
authors.forename: Xia
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Research and Evaluation, Kaiser Permanente Southern California, Pasadena, CA.
authors.forename: Deborah R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Young
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D015992:Body Mass Index; D001835:Body Weight; D002140:California / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D057286:Electronic Health Records; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D050177:Overweight / Q000453:epidemiology*; D063766:Pediatric Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015995:Prevalence; D055815:Young Adult