Table 1.

Demographic characteristics of New York City public school students enrolled in grades 6–8 from 2006–2011

		All Students		Girls		Boys
		N	%	N	%	N	%
Study Population		83,111	–	42,718	51.4	40,393	48.6
Race/Ethnicity
	Non-Hispanic white	16,444	19.79	8,113	18.99	8,331	20.63
	Non-Hispanic black	20,645	24.84	11,086	25.95	9,559	23.66
	Hispanic	29,823	35.88	15,410	36.07	14,413	35.68
	Asian/Pacific Islander	15,966	19.21	7,990	18.7	7,976	19.75
	Other^f	232	0.28	119	0.28	114	0.28
Place of Birth
	NYC Born	65,931	79.33	33,807	79.14	32,124	79.53
	Foreign Born	12,924	15.55	6,718	15.73	6,206	15.36
	US (not NYC) Born	4,256	5.12	2,193	5.13	2,063	5.11
Language Spoken at Home
	English	45,605	54.87	23,584	55.21	22,021	54.52
	Spanish	19,727	23.74	10,275	24.05	9,452	23.4
	Other Language	17,779	21.39	8,859	20.74	8,920	22.08
Student Household Poverty^a
	High	52,955	63.7	27,301	63.9	25,657	63.5
	Low	30,154	36.3	15,416	36.1	14,736	36.5
School Area Poverty^b
	Low	17,011	20.47	8,654	20.26	8,357	20.69
	Medium	30,994	37.29	16,082	37.65	14,912	36.92
	High	16,306	19.62	8,257	19.33	8,049	19.92
	Very high	18,800	22.62	9,725	22.77	9,075	22.47
Obesity Trajectory^c
	Consistently Obese	11,986	14.42	5,268	12.33	6,718	16.63
	Not Obese to Obese	3,418	4.11	1,663	3.89	1,755	4.34
	Obese to Not Obese	5,840	7.03	2,526	5.91	3,314	8.2
	Consistently Not Obese	61,867	74.44	33,261	77.86	28,606	70.82

	All Students		Girls		Boys
	Mean	SD	Mean	SD	Mean	SD
Days Absent^d	9.54	9.52	9.26	9.36	9.83	9.68
Starting Fitness Score^e	0.61	28.37	0.62	28.41	0.60	28.32

SD=standard deviation

Household poverty is measured by participation in the National School Lunch program. Students are eligible for reduced/free price meals and considered ‘high poverty’ if household income is within federally-defined poverty limits³⁰. Some students changed meal code during the study period, values in the table represent starting meal code values.

Within the school postal code area, levels of poverty were classified as low (<10% of residents living below the federal poverty level as defined by the U.S. Census 2000), medium (10 to <20%), high (20 to <30%), and very high (≥30%).

Students were characterized based on their obesity status in 6^th and 8^th grade.

Mean and standard deviation for days absent are based on all person-years of data for sample population (N=207,726 person-years).

The starting fitness score is grand mean centered (52.4) and should be added to the value presented to get starting fitness score.

Includes American Indian, Native Hawaiian, multiracial, and parent refused