Boys three times more likely to be obese than girls
New study finds 19.5% of males 5 to 11 years old are overweight, compared to just 6.3% of females
Canada’s boys are three times more likely than girls to be obese, according to new research that is exposing alarming and lopsided gender differences in the nation’s childhood obesity rates.
A new Statistics Canada report finds that 19.5 per cent of boys ages 5 to 11 are obese, compared with 6.3 per cent of girls of the same ages.
Experts say it’s long been recognized that obesity tends to occur in higher rates in boys than girls, “but certainly not as in-your-face as those numbers are,” said Dr. Katherine Morrison, medical director of the metabolism, obesity and health program at McMaster Children’s Hospital in Hamilton, Ont.
Overall, the study found close to one-third of young people — 31.5 per cent, or 1.6 million youth in Canada — were classified as overweight or obese. The study was based on measured heights and weights of 2,123 children and adolescents in Canada, aged 5 to 17, between 2009 and 2011.
Though the estimates haven’t changed significantly over the last decade, the authors said more research is needed to know for certain whether the once fast-rising pace of obesity is slowing.
Excess weight in childhood is increasingly being linked to illnesses once only seen in adults, including “adult-onset” Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, abnormal blood fats, abnormal blood clotting, thickening of the arteries and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Studies have shown adolescents who are overweight have a 14-fold increased risk of having a heart attack before they turn 50.
Children with obesity also have higher levels of depression and low self-esteem. They’re more likely to be teased or bullied at school.
In the new study, 19.8 per cent of the 5- to 17-year-olds were classified as overweight in 2009 to 2011, and 11.7 per cent were obese.
Overall, 15 per cent of boys were obese, compared to eight per cent of girls. But the gender split was most pronounced at ages 5 to 11.
Part of the difference relates to new World Health Organization standards that were used to measure obesity; doctors say the old standard was known to underestimate obesity.
But the new cutoffs alone aren’t enough to explain away the threefold difference in obesity rates reported among 5- to 11-year olds, experts say.
Screen time — time spent in front of TVs, computers, video games and smartphones — is strongly linked with childhood obesity. Children who spend two hours or more with screens per day are twice as likely to be overweight or obese than those who took up one hour or less. Studies have shown that screen time is higher among boys than girls.
“We also know that kids eat while they watch, and they eat what they watch,” said Dr. Tom Warshawski, head of pediatrics at Kelowna General Hospital and chair of the Childhood Obesity Foundation.
“They’re heavily marketed and exposed to unhealthy foods and beverages.”
But McMaster’s Morrison also wonders, “Is there some underlying biological differences in terms of how the environment is impacting males and females regarding obesity? This sort of begs that question, that you’re seeing it so young.”