- Children's waistlines have expanded at least four centimetres
[1.6"] -- the equivalent of two clothing sizes -- in the past 20 years,
with most of the increase coming in the past five years, according to a
new study.
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- The research, published today in the Archives of Disease
in Childhood, provides further proof that children are getting fatter at
an alarming rate, and girls more so than boys. It also helps explain why
children's clothing is getting larger, baggier and more elastic.
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- Children's clothes are now manufactured up to size 20,
with "size variations" to accommodate plus-size youngsters, but
they are still not keeping up.
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- "It used to be that if you had a six-year-old, you
bought size 6 clothes," said Karen Lovell, a buyer with the Toronto
children's store Jolly Tots. "These days, a lot of eight-year-olds
need a size 14."
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- Ms. Lovell said that in the decade she has been in retail,
she has seen a noticeable difference in the shape of children and teenagers.
"The kids today need the bigger sizes because they need it in the
waist, especially the girls." She said the most popular children's
clothes have elastic waists.
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- Karl Moore, a professor of marketing and consumer behaviour
at Montreal's McGill University, said that trend flows directly from the
growing number of overweight and obese consumers.
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- "Nobody likes to feel like they're putting on weight,
or that their kids are putting on weight, so manufacturers have adjusted,"
he said.
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- More important than the influence that expanding waistlines
are having on fashion is the potential impacts they may have on health.
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- That is because excess abdominal fat has been directly
linked to severe illnesses such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Waist size is also seen as a more accurate measure of obesity than the
traditional body-mass index.
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- "Waist circumference measures provide an extra level
of concern," said Mary Rudolf, a pediatrician at the East Leeds Primary
Care Trust in Leeds, England, and the study's lead researcher. She and
a team tracked a group of almost 700 children since 1995.
-
- Dr. Rudolf said that while children are getting taller
and heavier, weight gains are coming much faster. Worse yet, the data suggest
that overweight children are not stretching out as teens, but actually
getting fatter, and that the fat is primarily settling around the waist.
-
- A study published last year in the British Medical Journal
found a similar trend. David McCarthy, a senior lecturer at the department
of health and human sciences of London Metropolitan University found that,
in 1977, the average waistline of a 16-year-old-girl was 66 centimetres
[26"], and 72 centimetres {28"] for boys.
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- By 1997, waistlines had ballooned to 73 centimetres [29"]
in girls and 80 centimetres [31.5"] in boys, a markedly larger increase
than in their BMI.
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- "These children may be storing up problems for their
health later in life," Dr. McCarthy said.
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- The researchers said the data also demonstrate that,
by focusing on BMI, public-health officials have underestimated the prevalence
of obesity in children and teenagers.
-
- While the new research was conducted in England, scientists
said there is every reason to believe findings would be similar in Canada.
Canada and England have near-identical rates of adult and childhood obesity.
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- Dr. Moore of McGill University said parents may not have
noticed how much their children's waistlines are burgeoning because clothing
manufacturers have been practising a little numeric illusion with clothing
sizes.
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- "What used to be a size 7 is now a size 6. And a
40-inch waist on pants is actually bigger." He added that clothing
manufacturers are not being dishonest because size has "always been
an approximation," but consumers should be aware of what is going
on with their clothes.
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- Expanding waistlines
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- A group of children were measured over six years in order
to study trends in obesity. There appeared to be a steady increase in the
number who were overweight or obese.
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- % Overweight
- Boys/Girls
- 1996: 10/13
- 1997: 10/13
- 1998: 14/17
- 2001: 14/16
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- % Obese
- Boys/Girls
- 1996: 0/3
- 1997: 2/4
- 1998: 2/3
- 2001: 3/4
- Source: www.archdischild.com
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- © 2004 Bell Globemedia Publishing Inc. All Rights
- Reserved.
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- http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040224.wxfatkids24/BNStory/Front/
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