U.S. Obesity Rates Drop For Young Children

NEW YORK, Feb 25 (Reuters Health) - While U.S. rates of obesity haven't changed much in a decade, preschool age children are showing signs of a turnaround, with rates nearly halved in that time, according to a new federal study released on Tuesday.

Obesity rates among 2- to 5-year-old Americans dropped from 13.9 percent to 8.4 percent between 2003 and 2012, according to the findings published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Overall, however, more than a third of U.S. adults and 17 percent of kids and teens are obese.

"The rapid increase in obesity we saw in the '80s and '90s has definitely slowed," epidemiologist Cynthia Ogden told Reuters Health. "There's some glimmer of hope in the new data in relation to the 2 to 5 year olds."

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