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Study: Rural Kids Are Fatter Than City Kids

By Mark Huffman
ConsumerAffairs.com

March 14, 2005
You would think that kids growing up in America's rural areas, with plenty of fresh air and room to play, would be in excellent physical condition. But you would be wrong. A new study suggests that rural children are more obese than their urban counterparts.

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"The report found that rural Pennsylvania did have a problem with overweight children. We found this rate is higher than it is in urban areas. What we didn't find were any special social factors that correlated with the data," said Jonathon Johnson, senior policy analyst for the Center for Rural Pennsylvania, which carried out the research.

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The study used state health figures to compare the body-mass index of seventh-graders in urban and rural communities, surveying as many as 25,000 students. The data shows that nearly 16 percent of urban students were listed as obese. But in rural school districts, 20 percent of students recorded weights making them obese. Were the researchers surprised?

"Yes and no. We know that rural adults are more overweight than urban adults. But finding that rural children are also more obese than their urban counterparts was a bit of a surprise," Johnson told ConsumerAffairs.com.

Health experts around the country were quick to seize on the study, offering all kinds of reasons for the disparity. But Johnson says the research offers very few clues.

"There was no statistical smoking gun, saying 'this is a high correlation factor for overweight children.' We thought maybe it's income, but the income correlation wasn't that strong. Maybe it's poverty. No, didn't work. Maybe it's the schools, nope. We just had a difficult time finding anything with a strong correlation," he said.

The study does suggest the problem might be getting worse. The data shows that between 1999 and 2001, the number of obese students in rural areas rose increased five percent, more than twice as fast as in urban areas. Johnson says it's an area that needs closer attention.

"I've already heard of a couple of institutions starting their own research, and as people grow more concerned about this issue I think there will be more research, as well as more policies and programs directed against this problem."

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