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One in four children in Southwest Ohio are overweight due to poor nutrition, according to a recent study by the Children's Medical Center of Dayton.

Although the number of overweight youth in the region has declined from 30 percent to 24 percent since 2004, Children's officials said obesity has become the No. 1 concern for parents.

"While it is good to see that parents are becoming more aware of childhood obesity, this disease can lead to major health issues for children," said Dr. James Ebert of the lipid clinic at Dayton Children's.

"Risk factors for heart disease, like high cholesterol and high blood pressure, occur more frequently in overweight children as compared to children who have a healthy weight."

The results stem from a survey of 600 parents of children younger than 15 in seven counties, including Butler and Warren counties.

Butler County physicians say obesity among youth has been a growing problem and seems to be getting worse.

Dr. Kathy Lang, a family physician at The Fort Hamilton Hospital, quoted research showing about 14 percent of preschoolers; 19 percent of elementary students; and 17 percent of middle and high school students are obese.

"It's pretty frightening. The fear is not only about problems they'll face as children, but the problems they'll face as adults," Lang said.

Why are youth so heavy? Lack of exercise, poor nutrition and large consumption of fast food, high calorie fruit juices and sodas.

Lang said physicians nationwide are pushing for youth to have their body mass index (a calculation using height and weight) checked annually to determine whether they're overweight.

Dr. Susan Cracraft of Children's Medical Center in Middletown said last year area schools started measuring BMI of students.

Letters were sent home if the student is deemed overweight, she said.

Cracraft and Lang said parents need to model healthy behavior to see results.

"The problem we're running into is the American lifestyle is becoming so sedentary and it's spilling over and affecting our children," Lang said. "The only way to (combat the problem) is for parents to model these lifestyle changes. They're not going to pick this up unless they see their parents doing it."

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2180 or tlatta@coxohio.com.