Table 1.

Age, sex, and ethnic disparities in recent prevalence of obesity and overweight among U.S. children and adolescents: NHANES 2003–06 to 2007–2008

			Prevalence (2003–06)		Prevalence (2007–08)		Change 2003–06 to 2007–08,1percentage point
	Sex	Ethnicity	%	SE	%	SE
Children, 6–11 y
Obesity (BMI ≥ 95th percentile)†	Boys and girls	All	17.0	1.3	19.6	1.3	2.6
	Boys	All	18.0	1.7	21.2	1.7	3.2
	Girls	All	15.8	1.4	18.0	2.2	2.2
	Boys	NH white	15.5	2.8	20.5	2.8	5.0
		NH black	18.6	2.6	17.7	3.8	−0.9
		Mexican-American	27.5	2.1	27.1	4.2	−0.4
	Girls	NH white	14.4	2.1	17.4	3.6	3.0
		NH black	24.0	2.0	21.1	5.1	−2.9
		Mexican-American	19.7	2.6	22.3	3.6	2.6
	Boys and girls	All	33.3	2.0	35.5	1.6	2.2
Overweight (BMI ≥ 85th percentile)†	Boys	All	33.9	2.2	35.9	2.9	2.0
	Girls	All	32.6	2.4	35.2	2.9	2.6
	Boys	NH white	31.7	3.6	34.6	4.4	2.9
		NH black	33.8	3.6	36.4	3.9	2.6
		Mexican-American	47.1	2.5	44.0	4.4	−3.1
	Girls	NH white	31.5	3.6	34.3	4.9	2.8
		NH black	40.1	2.3	38.9	4.8	−1.2
		Mexican-American	38.1	3.3	39.3	5.2	1.2
Adolescents, 12–19 y	Boys and girls	All	17.6	1.2	18.1	1.8	0.5
Obesity (BMI ≥ 95th percentile)†	Boys	All	18.2	1.5	19.3	2.4	1.1
	Girls	All	16.8	1.5	16.8	2.1	0.0
	Boys	NH white	17.3	2.0	16.7	3.1	−0.6
		NH black	18.5	1.3	19.8	3.0	1.3
		Mexican-American	22.1	2.2	26.8	3.7	4.7
	Girls	NH white	14.5	2.0	14.5	3.4	0.0
		NH black	27.7	1.9	29.2	3.1	1.5
		Mexican-American	19.9	1.4	17.4	4.6	−2.5
Overweight (BMI ≥ 85th percentile)†	Boys and girls	All	34.1	1.5	34.2	1.9	0.1
	Boys	All	34.9	1.9	35.0	2.5	0.1
Girls	All	33.3	1.8	33.3	2.6	0.0
	Boys	NH white	34.5	2.6	32.6	3.7	−1.9
		NH black	32.1	1.8	33.0	5.0	0.9
		Mexican-American	40.5	2.6	46.1	7.4	5.6
	Girls	NH white	31.7	2.4	29.9	4.3	−1.8
		NH black	44.5	1.5	46.3	4.1	1.8
		Mexican-American	37.1	1.9	42.1	4.3	5.0

¹Change = prevalence in 2007–08 − prevalence in 2003–06.