SALT LAKE CITY — In the late 1990s, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported close to 5% of U.S. children and adolescents ages 2-19 could be diagnosed as obese, according to the body mass index readings.
This spring, the research agency reported that the number has nearly quadrupled in the 2020s to 19.7%. In Utah, that number is 12.2% — less than the national average but a statistic that is also growing rapidly.
This is especially the case among children living in rural areas in Utah. Many of those children are known as part of the rural poor and have a 1 in 4 chance of being diagnosed as obese. A group of researchers at University of Utah Health is hoping to find out why and what to do to turn these numbers around…