Youth Weight, Poverty Studied : Health: Poor children are three times more likely to be overweight than more affluent children. Black children are also more likely to be overweight than whites.

Poor children are nearly three times as likely to be overweight as children of more affluent families, a new analysis of the health habits of American youngsters reports.

The same study found black children more than three times as likely as white children to be overweight.

The study is based on data gathered in the 1987 National Medical Expenditure Survey, a sampling of health-care use and spending sponsored by the Department of Health and Human Services. Data obtained in four face-to-face interviews with each subject and a follow-up telephone interview were analyzed by Llewellyn J. Cornelius, a research fellow and social worker with HHS’ Agency for Health Care Policy and Research.

The findings were reported in the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Under-Served, published by Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tenn.

The results differ from those of an earlier study, which found obesity more common among white children than among black children.

That study was based on a federal survey conducted in the late 1970s and used a different methodology.

“When it comes to being overweight,” Cornelius said, “black kids have caught up with and passed white kids. We know that black adults are more likely to be obese than white adults; now we’re seeing a similar pattern in children.”

The study looked at the impact of demographic factors--age, gender, race, parental income and education level--on health habits of American school children ages 5 through 17.

The two most influential demographic factors turned out to be the income and education level of the parents, the study found.

The four health habits studied involve:

* Weight. Overall, nearly 8% of American children ages 5 to 17 weigh at least 30% more than is normal for their height and age. That means about 3 million overweight youngsters.

* Breakfast. One in five school-age children--or about 8 million in all--do not regularly eat breakfast. Children of college-educated parents are more likely to eat breakfast regularly than children whose parents did not finish high school.

* Seat belts. About 42% of American children--or more than 17 million--do not regularly buckle up while riding in a vehicle. Failure to use seat belts is highest among black and Latino children, the poor and those who live in rural areas.

* Sleep. Almost all school-age children average at least seven hours of sleep a night. Black teen-agers are the group most likely to average six hours per night or less.

Cornelius’ team found that 14.4% of poor children are overweight, compared with 5.2% of children from families with incomes at least double the poverty level. About 17% of black children are overweight, compared with about 5% of white children, they found.

The combined effect of race and poverty on body weight is even more striking: 21.9% of poor black children are overweight, compared with 4.5% of middle-income and affluent white children, the study found.