Not too surprisingly, when the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital conducted its annual survey on children’s health, childhood obesity ranked as the number one concern. What is interesting is the fact that more parents are worried about the problem than ever before, and it is cited as the biggest health problem for kids across different races.

Blacks, Hispanics now agree on obesity problem
Obesity has ranked as the biggest health concern among parents of all races for the past two years, but this year the number went up from being the biggest concern of 35 percent of adults last year to 42 percent this year.

In addition, this was the first year that African Americans and Hispanics noted obesity as their biggest health concern. Last year it was teen pregnancy among blacks and smoking among Hispanics.

In fact, more members of minority groups ranked obesity as the top problem, with 55 percent of blacks, 46 percent of Hispanics and 39 percent of whites naming it as the top problem. The other big problems for whites were drug abuse and Internet safety, while blacks pegged smoking and teen pregnancy and Hispanics bullying and child abuse or neglect.

The number of parents citing obesity as the biggest problem also varied by family income, with those in households making $30,000 to more than $100,000 calling obesity the biggest problem, while those in lower income households said smoking was a bigger problem.

The rest of the list
Among all groups, the top health concerns for kids included:

drug abuse
smoking
bullying
Internet safety
child abuse and neglect
alcohol abuse
stress
lack of opportunities for physical activity
teen pregnancy
Other concerns that did not make the top 10 include chemicals in the environment, driving accidents, sexually transmitted infections, school violence, depression, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, asthma, autism, eating disorders, neighborhood safety, dental problems, suicide and unsafe foods.