Indications of early obesity in low-income Hmong children

J. H. Himes, M. Story, K. Czaplinski and E. Dahlberg-Luby
Division of Human Development and Nutrition, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.

OBJECTIVE--To determine if there is evidence of obesity in low-income Hmong children. DESIGN--Cross-sectional survey. SETTING--Women, Infants, and Children clinics in Minneapolis, Minn. PARTICIPANTS--271 US-born Hmong children, ages 1.00 through 4.99 years. SELECTION PROCEDURES--Consecutive sample of all Hmong children seen in two clinics between September and December 1989. INTERVENTIONS--None. MEASUREMENTS/MAIN RESULTS--Heights and weights were measured and converted to National Center for Health Statistics z scores of weight for age, height for age, and weight for height. Relative to National Center for Health Statistics reference data, mean height-for-age z scores decline progressively after age 2 years to--1.2 z at age 4.5 years. Mean weight-for-height z scores exceeded the National Center for Health Statistics reference significantly at ages 3 and 4 years, and there was more than a fourfold excess of Hmong children beyond the 95th percentile in weight for height at these ages. CONCLUSIONS--There is evidence of early obesity in Hmong children, an ethnic group heretofore considered to be a low risk for obesity.