Prevalence of overweight and obesity in children and adolescents in a county in Sweden

Overweight among young people in Sweden is increasing. The aim of the prese nt study was to investigate the frequency of overweight and obesity based o n body mass index (BMI) values among children and adolescents, Overweight w as defined as a BMI value greater than or equal to 91st percentile and obes ity as a BMI value greater than or equal to 98th percentile on an internati onal reference BMI curve. The study population included boys and girls from four age groups: 9, 12, 15 and 18 y. The data consisted of self-reported m easures of height and weight that were obtained from questionnaires used in a cross-sectional study in December 1997. A validation study was performed using a part of the study population. A total of 7011 (81.7%) participants completed the questionnaire. The correlation between self-reported estimat ions and objective measures of height and weight was high in the oldest age groups (0.88-0.98), but lower in the 9-y-old age groups (0.37-0.72). These self-reported estimations in the 9-y-olds were excluded from further analy sis. It was found that 12.3%, 11.6% and 11.4% of the boys in the 12-, 15- a nd 18-y-old age groups and 6.8%, 5.5% and 4.8% of the girls in the same age groups were overweight and 7.9%, 8.9% and 7.3% of the boys and 5.1%. 4.2% and 3.9% of the girls were obese. Conclusion: The prevalence of overweight and obesity was found to be high i n the study population and is a serious public health problem. The prevalen ce of obesity was significantly higher (p < 0.05) in 15-y-old boys Living i n rural areas than in city and town dwellers of the same age.