Florida Childhood Obesity Rate Drops

Childhood obesity is finally showing signs of decline, and Florida is one state that's seen a drop in the obesity rate from 2008 to 2011.

The child obesity rate for low-income preschool-age children declined from 2008 to 2011, according to federal data. Childhood obesity had been leveling off in recent years, a generation after it began to rise, alarming physicians and public health experts and prompting public health officials to start nationwide campaigns to bring the rate down.

The largest drop for childhood obesity was in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where the childhood obesity rate fell from 13.6 percent in 2008 to 11 percent in 2011. Florida's childhood obesity rate dropped from 14.1 percent to 13.1 percent, giving it one of the biggest drops in the country.

Childhood obesity rates have held steady after they tripled since the early 1980s. Childhood obesity rates peaked in 2009, when 14.9 percent of low-income preschool-age children were obese, but that number declined to 14.4 percent in 2011.