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Is the prevalence of overweight and obesity declining among 4‐year‐old Swedish children?
Author(s) -
Bergström Erik,
Blomquist Hans Kson
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
acta pædiatrica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.772
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1651-2227
pISSN - 0803-5253
DOI - 10.1111/j.1651-2227.2009.01490.x
Subject(s) - overweight , medicine , obesity , pediatrics , demography , body mass index , prevalence , environmental health , population , sociology
Aim: To investigate the trend in overweight and obesity prevalence among 4‐year‐old Swedish children. Methods: Height and weight data registered at the regular health check up at the child health centres in the county of Västerbotten during the years 2007/2008 (2225 boys and 2156 girls) were analysed and compared with data from 2002/2003 (2231 boys and 2176 girls). Overweight and obesity were estimated using the International Obesity Task Force cut‐off values (ISO BMI). Results: In both boys and girls, overweight prevalence (ISO BMI > 25) decreased over the 5‐year period, boys from 17.2% to 14.2% and girls from 22.3% to 19.0%. Among girls, there was also a decrease in obesity prevalence (ISO BMI > 30) from 5.7% to 3.1%. Conclusion: The result of this study indicates that the overweight and obesity epidemic among Swedish pre‐school children may be levelling off.