SUMMARY

The literature on obesity and overweight in children shows a lack of reliable frequency calculations. Neither physiologic variations in subcutaneous fat during childhood nor the role of genetic factors have received sufficient attention in the discussion on the etiology. Previous workers in this field, moreover, have arrived a t divergent results not only in their investigations of the family situation, but in regard to the causal significance of somatic and psychic factors in obesity and overweight. Furthermore, there are no objective investigations into the physical potential of these children, and into their relations with other children. The few prognostic studies reported have been mainly concerned with highly obese children, and thus shed no light on the question whether overweight of lower grades calls for preventive measures. The investigation here reported was designed to illuminate these problems by analyses of series collected from all the schools in Stockholm. By “overweight” is meant, in this study, a body weight exceeding the mean plus twice the standard deviation (sigma) a t a given height according to current heightweight tables. The overweight series consists of 718 girls and 687 boys between the ages of 7 and 15 years, and reported as overweight by the relevant school nurses. This series is compared in various respects with two different control series, one of them (control series I) comprising 415 girls and 387 boys; the other (control series 11), 164 overweight boys referable to one age category (1943). The two control series are also used for checking the reliability of the school nurses’ reporting as well as the current applicability of the above-mentioned heightweight tables. (Chapter 2.)