Measuring health disparities: trends in racial-ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in obesity among 2- to 18-year old youth in the United States, 2001-2010.

PURPOSE

Although eliminating health disparities by race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status (SES) is a top public health priority internationally and in the United States, weight-related racial/ethnic and SES disparities persist among adults and children in the United States. Few studies have examined how these disparities have changed over time; these studies are limited by the reliance on rate differences or ratios to measure disparities. We sought to advance existing research by using a set of disparity metrics on both the absolute and relative scales to examine trends in childhood obesity disparities over time.

METHODS

Data from 7066 children, ages 2 to 18 years, in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys were used to explore trends in racial/ethnic and SES disparities in pediatric obesity from 2001 to 2010 using a set of different disparity metrics.

RESULTS

Racial/ethnic and SES-related disparities in pediatric obesity did not change significantly from 2001 to 2010 and remain significant.

CONCLUSIONS

Disparities in obesity have not improved during the past decade. The use of different disparity metrics may lead to different conclusions with respect to how disparities have changed over time, highlighting the need to evaluate disparities using a variety of metrics.