Nemours Health & Prevention Services Releases Obesity Data Brief

Nemours Health & Prevention Services (NHPS) is pleased to announce the release of the second data brief from the 2014 Delaware Survey of Children’s Health (DSCH) data, Prevalence of Obesity and Weight-Related Health Behaviors Among Delaware Children. The DSCH, sponsored by Nemours Children’s Health System, is one of the most comprehensive health surveillance instruments for Delaware children ages birth through 17 years. Findings from the DSCH assess obesity prevalence in Delaware, as well as the health behaviors that are associated with the children’s weight status. The brief also explores differences among various groups (gender, age and racial/ethnic).

Highlighted Findings:

• Approximately one in five Delaware children, ages 2-17, were obese in 2014. There was no statistically significant change in the overall prevalence of obesity for Delaware children from 2011 (20.9 percent) to 2014 (21.3 percent). However, there was a statistically significant decrease in obesity among Hispanic females, ages 2-17, and non-Hispanic White males, ages 6-11.
  
  

•  Weight status was associated with fruit and vegetable intake, sugar-sweetened beverage consumption, and screen time. Children with obesity were less likely to eat five or more fruits and vegetables daily (46.2 percent) compared to children with normal weight (59.8 percent). Children with obesity also were less likely to limit sugar-sweetened beverage consumption to two cups or less per week and more likely to spend more time using electronic devices compared to children with normal weight.|
  
  

• More children engaged in daily physical activity and limited sugar-sweetened consumption in 2014 compared to 2011. The prevalence of Delaware children who limited consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages to two cups or less improved from 2011 (57.2 percent) to 2014 (63.3 percent). Delaware children were more physically active in 2014 than they were in 2011. In 2014, 54.9 percent of Delaware children engaged in 60 or more minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per day, up from 47.0 percent in 2011.
  
  

For a broader view of the DSCH findings, the Key Findings brief includes many total population indicators for 2014, as well as a select number of statistically significant changes over time between 2011 and 2014.

Nemours has conducted the Delaware Survey of Children’s Health (DSCH) in 2006, 2008, 2011, and most recently in 2014. The 2014 DSCH was conducted from July 2014 to May 2015 by telephone, including cell phones. The final data set contains data for 2,657 Delaware households with children.

The NHPS Datacenter allows for further comparison, download, and visualization of the DSCH data. Data can be analyzed by location (three Delaware counties and the City of Wilmington), age group, and racial and ethnic group. For more information about the DSCH, please visit the NHPS Datacenter http:/datacenter.nemours.org.