Trends of overweight and obesity among white and American Indian school children in South Dakota, 1998-2010.

Objective: To investigate the prevalence of overweight and obesity among white and American Indian children in a predominantly rural state.

Design And Methods: Using a repeated, cross-sectional design of school children's height and weight, the study sample included 361,352 measures of children who were 5.0-19.

The obesity epidemic in South Dakota: how big is the problem?

Obesity is an increasing problem both in the United States and South Dakota. Currently, 30.3 percent of South Dakota adults self-report being obese, which is higher than the national prevalence and also increasing at a faster rate than other states.

High bone density in young Hutterite children.

We previously reported greater than average aBMD in adult Hutterites; however, it is unknown whether higher aBMD occurs at younger ages. We examined Hutterite children to test the hypotheses that aBMD Z-scores in younger (<15 years) Hutterite children would be similar to reference data; but greater in older children after they enter the adult workforce at age 15. A secondary aim was to determine lifestyle factors associated with bone measures among Hutterite children.