Am J Public Health. 2015 Jan;105(1):e22-e35.

Systematic Review of Prevalence of Young Child Overweight and Obesity in the United States-Affiliated Pacific Region Compared With the 48 Contiguous States: The Children's Healthy Living Program.

Novotny R¹, Fialkowski MK, Li F, Paulino Y, Vargo D, Jim R, Coleman P, Bersamin A, Nigg CR, Leon Guerrero RT, Deenik J, Kim JH, Wilkens LR.

Author information

1: Rachel Novotny, Marie Kainoa Fialkowski, Fenfang Li, and Rally Jim are with the Department of Human Nutrition, Food, and Animal Sciences, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu. Claudio R. Nigg is with the Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Hawaii at Manoa. Jonathan Deenik is with the Department of Tropical Plants and Soil Science, University of Hawaii at Manoa. Lynne R. Wilkens is with Cancer Center, University of Hawaii at Manoa. Yvette Paulino is with the Department of Nursing and Health Sciences, University of Guam, Mangilao. Rachael T. Leon Guerrero is with the College of Agriculture, University of Guam. Donald Vargo is with the Land Grant Program, American Samoa Community College, Pago Pago. Patricia Coleman and Jang Ho Kim are with the Cooperative Research, Extension, and Education Service Department Northern Marianas College, Saipan. Andrea Bersamin is with the Center for Alaska Native Health Research at the University of Alaska.

Abstract

We estimated overweight and obesity (OWOB) prevalence of children in US-Affiliated Pacific jurisdictions (USAP) of the Children's Healthy Living Program compared with the contiguous United States. We searched peer-reviewed literature and government reports (January 2001-April 2014) for OWOB prevalence of children aged 2 to 8 years in the USAP and found 24 sources. We used 3 articles from National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys for comparison. Mixed models regressed OWOB prevalence on an age polynomial to compare trends (n = 246 data points). In the USAP, OWOB prevalence estimates increased with age, from 21% at age 2 years to 39% at age 8 years, increasing markedly at age 5 years; the proportion obese increased from 10% at age 2 years to 23% at age 8 years. The highest prevalence was in American Samoa and Guam.