Childhood overweight is defined as a Body Mass Index (BMI) at or above the 85th percentile and below the 95th percentile for children and teens of the same age and sex. Childhood obesity is defined as a BMI at or above the 95th percentile for children and teens of the same age and sex. The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2017-March 2020 Pre-pandemic, indicates an overall obesity prevalence rate among youth aged 2-19 years of 19.7% in the U.S.30 The survey also found that obesity rates increased among youth as age increased.
As an attempt to help slow the spread of COVID-19 in Kentucky schools, the last two school years, 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 did not conduct mass health screenings in Kentucky. Therefore, local BMI data for Carroll County schools is extremely limited and has a very low confidence interval and has not been included in this most recent report. It is worth noting however that the average percent of children considered obese in Kentucky schools for ages 10-17 has increased from 19.3% of the population in the school year 2016-2017 to 23.8% in the school year 2019-202031.