Study: Obesity rises for elementary-aged kids

Obesity among children in elementary school is on the rise. That is according to researchers from Emory University.

They followed kindergarten cohorts in 1998 and 2010 at multiple time-points through 5th grade in 2004 and 2016, respectively.

They found that obesity during primary school increased more during the 2000s than it did a decade earlier.

Over 72% of children had a normal BMI in 1998. Twelve years later, the percentage of children starting school with a normal BMI decreased to 69%.

They also found that obesity was more common among African American children in the later group, compared to the earlier one.