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Prevalence of obesity in Thailand
Author(s) -
Aekplakorn W.,
Mosuwan L.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
obesity reviews
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.845
H-Index - 162
eISSN - 1467-789X
pISSN - 1467-7881
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-789x.2009.00626.x
Subject(s) - obesity , body mass index , socioeconomic status , medicine , demography , secular variation , environmental health , gerontology , population , sociology
Summary The prevalence of obesity in Thailand has been doubled in the past two decades. Data from three consecutive National Health examination surveys (NHES) have shown a secular trend, as the prevalence of obesity with body mass index ≥25 kg m −2 in adults increased from 13.0% in men and 23.2% in women in 1991 to 18.6% and 29.5% in 1997 and 22.4% and 34.3% in 2004 respectively. Obesity prevalence in children, using weight for height criteria, increased from 5.8% in 1997 to 7.9% in 2001 for the 2–5‐year‐olds and from 5.8% to 6.7% for the 6–12‐year‐olds. The data also show disproportionate increases of obesity in the rural area, which indicates the problem no longer restricts to the higher socioeconomic group.