Kids Grow Up So Fast These Days…

Posted on August 28th, 2012 by Kyle Foreman

It’s a common refrain, but are children actually growing up faster than they used to? A surprising number of kids today are being diagnosed with diseases we always used to associated with aging. Many of these diseases can be traced back to the so-called “Obesity Epidemic” among American kids.

To determine how many kids in America suffer from these adult-onset diseases, we looked at anonymous data from nearly half a million pediatric checkups in Practice Fusion’s electronic health record (EHR) system and then extrapolated to the entire United States. Here’s what we’ve found:

Perhaps most alarming is that over 3 million 10-18 year olds suffer from hypertension (the medical term for high blood pressure). Reflecting a recent study in the Netherlands, our data indicated that childhood obesity greatly increases the risks of such cardiovascular diseases. As seen below, obese children face over three times the risk for hypertension as children at a healthy weight:

Type II Diabetes has also been increasingly common among American children. Once called “Adult-Onset Diabetes” by medical professionals – in contrast to Type I “Juvenile Diabetes” – the age distinction is rapidly disappearing. More and more children are being diagnosed with Type II Diabetes, which makes up nearly 30% of the diabetes cases in 17 year-olds:

Childhood obesity once more appears to be highly correlated with the onset of an “adult” disease in this case. Type II Diabetes is much more common in obese kids, even among kids under 10 years old. What’s worse, even more obese kids have been diagnosed with “Pre-Diabetes”—they don’t yet meet the criteria for Type II Diabetes but are at high risk of developing it:

Obesity in children is unfortunately very high, and likely rising. We find that about 21% of US children are obese, and another 16.5% are in the less severe “overweight” category:

At least we already know the best way to prevent childhood obesity: healthy eating and an active lifestyle. Of course, the hard part is getting this to happen.

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About Kyle Foreman

Kyle Foreman

Kyle Foreman is a Practice Fusion data scientist. Before coming to Practice Fusion, he researched epidemiology and biostatistics. Working with Practice Fusion’s massive EHR dataset allows him to marry his twin loves of health and statistics.

  • dwight thomas

    this is great and useful information. i will pass it on to my children and grands

  • Glenn Laffel

    A nicely presented infographic! Please be careful though, about making inferences about the entire US population based on your sample, large though it may be.

    To give one example, take your conclusions about the relative incidence of Type 1 vs. Type 2 Diabetes in kids. Kids with Type 1 are quite challenging to manage. As a result, nowadays nearly all of them are cared for by Specialists (hospital-affiliated endocrinologists). Since PF data is largely derived from non-hospital-affiliated providers, these data may well underrepresent the true incidence of Type 1 in a national population.

    What you can safely conclude that “in our sample, 17% blah blah blah” and suggest further studies be done. That in itself is quite interesting and defensible.

    As an aside, there are other data sources (e.g. NHANES) that are designed to generate accurately reflective national samples. It might be fun and helpful to see how incidence rates in the PF population compare with these data.

  • http://www.facebook.com/haydee.cordero.9 Haydee Cordero

    Elementary schools should have more time for gym and health care classes. At this age it s a good influence while their minds are still open to developement. Most parents come home tired from work and just reach for a quick dinner and rest ,so they forget to monitor their childrens intake.

  • Tammy Flowers

    I feel that this is a great concern to everybody, and our childern are living in a fast pace time now, It always need to start in the home and branch out in the schools and other outtings. ( such as church, girl or boy scouts,and so many other activities.} as we adults have not been eating like we should and our children looks at us as an example. We need to do this as a team so the children dont feel they are alone.

    • Vicky

      You hit the nail on the head when you said it starts in the home and then branches out.

  • Cindy

    I find this information alarming.

  • Heather

    The food’s they feed our children in the school’s is garbage! Vegetables from cans that have been cooked so long they no longer have any nutritional content. Counting ketchup at a vegetable!!! If salad is a choice, the lettuce is the cheap iceberg, also with no nutritional content, and mostly water. I could go on…