Obesity Among US Urban Preschool Children: Relationships to Race, Ethnicity, and Socioeconomic Status

In the United States, a disparity among racial/ethnic groups in the prevalence of obesity is one of the great concerns and enigmas in the obesity epidemic. This article seeks to determine whether there are racial/ethnic differences in the prevalence of obesity among preschool children and determine whether these differences are explained by socioeconomic factors. Using data Mathematica collected for the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study in 20 large U.S. cities, the researchers found that the prevalence of obesity was 25.8 percent among Hispanics, 16.2 percent among blacks, and 14.8 percent among whites. The high prevalence of obesity among Hispanics relative to blacks or whites was not explained by racial/ethnic differences in maternal education, household income, or food security.