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Prevalence of overweight and cardiovascular risk factors in rural and urban children from Central Asia: The Kazakhstan health and nutrition examination survey
Author(s) -
Facchini Fiorenzo,
Fiori Giovanni,
Bedogni Giorgio,
Galletti Livia,
Belcastro Maria Giovanna,
Ismagulov Orazak,
Ismagulova Ainagul,
Sharmanov Turegeldy,
Tsoy Igor,
Rizzoli Sara,
Goldoni Matteo
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
american journal of human biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.559
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1520-6300
pISSN - 1042-0533
DOI - 10.1002/ajhb.20646
Subject(s) - overweight , medicine , anthropometry , environmental health , obesity , kazakh , rural area , demography , gerontology , philosophy , linguistics , pathology , sociology
Abstract Kazakhstan is undergoing a rapid modernization process, which carries the risk of an epidemic of obesity and cardiovascular disease. We enrolled a sample of about 50 children for every combination of gender, environment (urban vs. rural), ethnic group (Kazakh vs. Russian), and age group from 7 to 18 years, for a total of 4,808 children. Anthropometry and blood pressure were measured on all children while fasting blood cholesterol and glucose were measured only in 2,616 children aged ≥12 years. The prevalence of overweight and risk of overweight ranged from 2.8 (rural male Kazakhs) to 9.1% (urban male Russians). The prevalence of prehypertension and hypertension ranged from 8.3 (urban females) to 15.9% (rural females); that of hypercholesterolemia from 11.5 (male rural Russians) to 26.5% (female rural Kazakhs); and the overall prevalence of impaired fasting glucose was 0.1%. We conclude that overweight and cardiovascular risk factors are less prevalent in children living in Kazakhstan than in those living in Western countries. However, these figures are not negligible and suggest that preventive measures are needed to contain the epidemic of overweight and cardiovascular disease that will most likely accompany the modernization of Kazakhstan in the next years. Am. J. Hum. Biol., 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.