Commentary: Pediatric Obesity: Systems Science Strategies for Prevention

In the past 3 decades, obesity has become a major public health problem with negative consequences that extend from individual health to the economics of the U.S. health care system (Ogden, Carroll, Kit, & Flegal, 2012; Trasande & Elbel, 2012). The epidemic has spread to children. The prevalence of obesity (body mass index [BMI] >95th percentile) is 18.2% among children and adolescents, aged 6–19 years, with even higher rates among African American and Hispanic children (25.7% and 22.9%, respectively), far exceeding the Healthy People 2010 obesity goal of 5% (Ogden et al., 2012; National Center for Health Statistics, 2012). Patterns of obesity begin early in life; prevalence rates are 9.7% among children of age