Young Latino Children Obesity: The Importance of Socioeconomic Status, Home Language, TV watching, and Physical Activity

Abstract

The incidence of young Latino children obesity is a public health concern. Among 5-year-olds, 16% of Latinos are obese compared with 10% of whites. Obesity disparities between non-Latino white and Latino children increase significantly with age. The purpose of this study is to examine the importance of socioeconomic status (SES), home language, physical activity, and TV watching for explaining obesity disparities between 5-year-old white and Latino children. Also, the long-lasting influence of these four variables is studied by analyzing their impact on obesity as children grew to ages 6, 8, and 10. We used a nationally representative sample drawn from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study- Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K) collected in 1998-99.