(P10-061-24) Obesity and Severe Obesity Among Children Aged 24 to 48 Months Participating in the WIC Infant and Toddler Feeding Practices Study-2 by Race/Ethnicity

Objectives: Describe rates of obesity and severe obesity among child participants in the WIC Infant Toddler Feeding Practices Study-2 (ITFPS-2) by maternal race/ethnicity using new extended CDC BMI-for-age metrics.

Methods: Samples of 1731, 1886, and 2115 children aged 24, 36, and 48 months from the WIC ITFPS-2 were used. All had some exposure to WIC. Maternal race/ethnicity was defined as non-Hispanic white, non-Hispanic black, Hispanic of any race, and other race/ethnicity. Child weight status was defined using CDC BMI-for-age and extended BMI-for-age growth charts as < 5th (underweight); 5-84th (healthy weight); 85-94th (overweight); 95-98th (obese); and 98-99th, 99-99.9th, 99.9-99.99th, and ≥99.99th (severely obese) percentiles. Differences in distributions of child weight status across maternal race/ethnicity were assessed with χ² tests. All analyses used sampling weights.

Results: Compared to children of mothers of a different race/ethnicity, at 24 months more children of mothers of Hispanic ethnicity fell in the 95-98th, 99-99.9th, and 99.9-99.99th percentiles (10.9%, 7.4%, and 3.4%); more children of mothers of non-Hispanic white race were in the 98-99th and ≥99.99th percentiles (3.8% and 1%). At 36 months, more children of mothers of non-Hispanic white race were in the 95-98th and 99-99.9th percentiles (6.7% and 4.9%), more children of mothers of non-Hispanic black race were in the 98-99th percentiles (3.5%), more children of mothers of Hispanic ethnicity were in the 99.9-99.99th percentiles (2.2%), and more children of mothers of other race/ethnicity were in the ≥99.99th percentiles (1.9%). At 48 months, more children of mothers of non-Hispanic black race were in the 95-98th percentiles (8.4%), more children of mothers of other race/ethnicity were in the 98-99th, 99-99.9th, and ≥99.99th percentiles (6.8%, 4.2%, and 1.9%), and more children of mothers of Hispanic race were in the 99.9-99.99th percentiles (2.5%). χ2 tests of differences in distributions of child weight status by maternal race/ethnicity were not significant at p< 0.05.

Conclusions: Applying new extended metrics to WIC ITFPS-2 data further characterizes severe obesity among children with exposure to WIC in infancy. Non-significant χ² tests suggests that severe obesity is a challenge across groups.

Funding Sources: USDA