Prevalence of overweight and obesity among children and adolescents in Shenyang and its relationship with birth weight

Objective To determine the prevalence of overweight and obesity among children and adolescents in Shenyang and the relationship between the birth weight to overweight and obesity in the childhood aged 7 to 17 years. Methods A stratified cluster representative sample of 5800 children and adolescents aged 7 to 17 years from 27 schools among 3 regions in Shenyang was selected.The study was carried out by using questionnaire about birth weight and physical examination including weight and height.Overweight and obesity were defined according to body mass index cutpoint.The body mass index classification criteria recommended by the Chinese Working Group on Obesity for Children(WGOC) was adopted, and the relationship between birth weight and overweight or obesity in children and adolescents were analyzed by collecting the information associated with overweight or obesity. Results The overall combined prevalence of overweight and obesity was 21.13% with obesity as 7.12% based on the WGOC criteria, and children of 10 to 12 years old were high-risk population groups.The risk of a male becoming overweight or obesity was 2.01 times higher than the risk of a female.The prevalence of overweight and obesity in Shenyang were level Ⅱ, especially for males the incidence of overweight and obesity of high birth weight babies was 1.73(95%CI: 1.51-2.87) times higher than that of normal birth weight babies, while the incidences of overweight and obesity between low birth weight babies and normal birth weight babies were not statistically different. Conclusions The study indicated that the prevalence of overweight or obesity children and adolescents are level Ⅱ in Shenyang.There is high risk to be overweight and obesity in adolescences and especially for males.To decrease overweight and obesity in children and adolescents we should pay greater attention to fetus period. Key words: Overweight; Obesity; Birth weight; Children and adolescents