Childhood obesity, depression, general health getting worse: study

Many of what researchers found already known, but the study paints a comprehensive picture by studying different aspects of physical and mental health at the same time.

“The surprising part of the study was not with any one statistic,” said Dr. Christopher Forest, one of the authors of the study published on Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The Minister of Health brought Robert F. Kennedy Junior Children’s Health at the forefront of the national policy conversation, as a report “made America healthy again” described children as unreasonable and superior, and raised concerns about their lack of physical activity. But the Trump administration’s actions – including discounts in federal health agencies, medical and scientific research – are unlikely to reflect the direction, according to external experts who reviewed the two study.

“Children in America is not as good as it should, not as good as other countries, and the current policies of this administration will definitely increase the matter,” said Dr. Friedrich Rivara, a pediatrician and researcher at Seattle Children’s Hospital in Seattle. Participated in a composition of an opening article accompanying the new study.

Forest and his colleagues analyzed investigative studies and electronic health records of 10 children’s health systems and international death statistics. Among the results they reached:

Obesity rates for children in the United States increased from 2 to 19 years from 17 % in 2007-2008 to about 21 % in 2021-2023.

In 2023, the American child was more likely from 15 % to 20 % of an American child in 2011 to have a chronic condition such as anxiety, depression, or sleep apnea, according to data reported by parents and doctors.

The annual prevalence rates increased to 97 chronic cases recorded by doctors from about 40 % in 2011 to about 46 % in 2023.

Beginning early in menstruation, trouble sleeping, restrictions in activity, physical symptoms, symptoms of depression and loneliness also increased among American children during the study period.

American children were about 1.8 times more likely to die than children in other high countries than 2007-2022. The premature death and suddenly unexpectedly was much higher among American children, and accidents related to firearms and car accidents were more common among American children, 1 to 19, among those examined in the same era in other countries.

Forest, a pediatrician at the Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia, said research indicates greater problems with America’s health.

“The children are the canary in the coal mine,” he said. “When the health of children change, this is due to increased weakness, and what happens in society as a whole reflects.”

He said that the timing of the study is “completely lucky.” Before the 2024 presidential election, Forest was working on a book on prosperity during the life period and was unable to find this type of comprehensive data on children’s health.

Dr. James Perrin, a pediatrician and spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics, who did not participate in the study, indicated that the data groups that have been analyzed have some restrictions and may not be applicable to the full US population.

“The basic result is correct,” he said.

“It is following other policies that will work against the interests of children,” said the editorial published along with the study, while the administration’s MAA movement attracts attention to chronic diseases. These include disposal of injuries prevention programs and mother health programs, canceling investments in a campaign of sudden infant death and “fueling the vaccine frequency between parents who may lead to the return of deadly metaphysical diseases,” the authors wrote.

Officials from the US Department of Health and Humanitarian Services did not respond to the request for comment.

Forest said that the risks highlighted by the Maha report, such as eating a lot of very treated foods, are real but missed complex driving trends in children’s health.

He said: “We have to retreat and take some lessons from the environmental sustainability community and say: Let’s take a look at the ecosystem in which children grow. Let us start in a kind of neighborhood after another, on the basis of the city, and study it.”

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