PMID- 15517505
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20041230
LR  - 20221212
IS  - 1424-7860 (Print)
IS  - 0036-7672 (Linking)
VI  - 134
IP  - 35-36
DP  - 2004 Sep 4
TI  - Overweight and obesity in 6-12 year old children in Switzerland.
PG  - 523-8
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Our aim was to estimate the national prevalence of overweight and 
      obesity in Swiss primary schoolchildren and to determine if adiposity is 
      increasing in this age group. METHODS: We used a cross-sectional, 3-stage, 
      probability-proportionate-to-size cluster sampling of primary schools throughout 
      Switzerland to obtain a representative national sample of 6-12 year old children 
      (n = 2431). Height and weight were measured and used to calculate body mass index 
      (BMI). BMI references from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 
      (CDC) and the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) were used to define 
      adiposity. The triceps, biceps, subscapular and suprailiac skinfold thickness 
      (SFT) was measured and used to calculate body fat percentage (BF%). BMI and BF% 
      were compared to data from 6-12 year old Swiss children in the 1960's and 1980's. 
      RESULTS: BMI and BF% were well correlated in both boys and girls (r2 = 0.74). 
      Using the IOTF references, the prevalence of overweight and obesity was 16.6% and 
      3.8% in boys and 19.1% and 3.7% in girls. Using the CDC references, the 
      prevalence of overweight and obesity was 19.9% and 7.4% in boys and 18.9% and 
      5.7% in girls. There was no significant age or gender difference in the 
      prevalence of overweight or obesity. At all ages, boys and girls had 50-100% 
      higher mean BF% than Swiss children from the 1960's and 1980's. Using the current 
      CDC BMI references, the prevalence of overweight has increased more than 5-fold 
      in Swiss children since the mid-1980's. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest there 
      has been a striking increase in BF% and the prevalence of overweight and obesity 
      in Swiss children in the last two decades.
FAU - Zimmermann, Michael B
AU  - Zimmermann MB
AD  - Laboratory for Human Nutrition, Institute for Food Science and Nutrition, Swiss 
      Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland. 
      michael.zimmermann@ilw.agrl.ethz.ch
FAU - Gubeli, Carolyn
AU  - Gubeli C
FAU - Puntener, Claudia
AU  - Puntener C
FAU - Molinari, Luciano
AU  - Molinari L
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
PL  - Switzerland
TA  - Swiss Med Wkly
JT  - Swiss medical weekly
JID - 100970884
SB  - IM
CIN - Swiss Med Wkly. 2004 Sep 4;134(35-36):511-3. PMID: 15517503
MH  - Anthropometry
MH  - Body Mass Index
MH  - Child
MH  - Female
MH  - Humans
MH  - Male
MH  - Obesity/*epidemiology
MH  - Skinfold Thickness
MH  - Switzerland/epidemiology
EDAT- 2004/11/02 09:00
MHDA- 2004/12/31 09:00
CRDT- 2004/11/02 09:00
PHST- 2004/11/02 09:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2004/12/31 09:00 [medline]
PHST- 2004/11/02 09:00 [entrez]
AID - smw-10640 [pii]
AID - 10.4414/smw.2004.10640 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Swiss Med Wkly. 2004 Sep 4;134(35-36):523-8. doi: 10.4414/smw.2004.10640.