Prevalence of overweight and obesity from 5 to 19 years of age in Gothenburg, Sweden

Aim The aim of this study was to present prevalence data for overweight and obesity across school age in a large, recent, population‐based cohort of children in Gothenburg, Sweden. Methods We included 66,807 children (48.5% girls) aged 5–18.9 years who had their height and weight measured in school health care 2015–2018. The BMI values were categorised according to the age‐dependent cut‐offs for overweight and obesity from the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF). Results Overall, the prevalence of overweight and obesity for girls and boys was 18.1% and 18.0%, respectively. We observed increasing proportions of overweight (girls 11.5–17.1% and boys 8.4–17.4%) and obesity (girls 3.0–4.2% and boys 2.7–6.1%) with increasing age ( p  < 0.001 for trend in both sexes). Moreover, girls had higher prevalence of overweight during ages 5.0 to 8.9 years compared with boys ( p  < 0.001), while boys had higher prevalence of obesity 15.0–18.9 years compared with girls ( p  < 0.001). Conclusion In conclusion, we demonstrate increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity across the entire school age range, as well as differences in prevalences between boys and girls, in a population‐based sample of 67,000 children in Gothenburg city, Sweden. Continuous monitoring of schoolchildren, together with effective preventive measures, is crucial to curb the obesity epidemic and its consequences.