PMID- 16691404
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20070207
LR  - 20211020
IS  - 0340-6199 (Print)
IS  - 0340-6199 (Linking)
VI  - 165
IP  - 10
DP  - 2006 Oct
TI  - A comparison study of the prevalence of overweight and obese Italian preschool 
      children using different reference standards.
PG  - 696-700
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The number of overweight children is constantly increasing in both 
      developed and underdeveloped countries. Most epidemiological surveys consider 
      school age children with little attention being given to preschool age children. 
      This study was undertaken to define the prevalence of being overweight or obese 
      in a population of children 3-6 years of age, living in North-East Italy. We also 
      identified differences when comparing body mass index (BMI) data against three 
      different national and international standards. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: The study 
      involved 258 children (124 males and 134 females) with an average age of 4.8 
      years. Weight and height were obtained for each child and BMI was calculated 
      according to the formula weight (kg)/height (m)(2). The prevalence of overweight 
      and obese subjects was then determined using the growth curves of the Centers for 
      Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the growth curves of the International 
      Obesity Task Force (IOTF) and the curves published in 2003 by Luciano et al. 
      RESULTS: All three methods gave similar, but not identical, estimates of the 
      prevalence of overweight in both boys and girls. However, when determining the 
      prevalence of obesity, the use of the CDC curves led to a significantly higher 
      prevalence of obesity in both males and females when compared to the growth 
      charts of the IOTF and Luciano et al. BACKGROUND: The use of the CDC growth 
      curves leads to an increase in the prevalence of obesity when evaluating children 
      under 5 years of age. The lower cut-off values inherent in the CDC charts, in 
      contrast to the ones proposed by the IOTF, allow for earlier identification of a 
      larger number of subjects with weight problems and therefore provide the 
      potential for earlier intervention.
FAU - Vidal, Enrico
AU  - Vidal E
AD  - Department of Pediatrics, University of Udine, School of Medicine, P.le S. M. 
      della Misericordia, Udine, 33100, Italy. enrico.vidal@inwind.it
FAU - Carlin, Eva
AU  - Carlin E
FAU - Driul, Daniela
AU  - Driul D
FAU - Tomat, Micaela
AU  - Tomat M
FAU - Tenore, Alfred
AU  - Tenore A
LA  - eng
PT  - Comparative Study
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Multicenter Study
DEP - 20060512
PL  - Germany
TA  - Eur J Pediatr
JT  - European journal of pediatrics
JID - 7603873
SB  - IM
MH  - *Body Mass Index
MH  - Child
MH  - Child, Preschool
MH  - Female
MH  - Humans
MH  - Internationality
MH  - Italy/epidemiology
MH  - Male
MH  - Obesity/*epidemiology
MH  - *Overweight
MH  - Prevalence
MH  - Reference Standards
EDAT- 2006/05/13 09:00
MHDA- 2007/02/08 09:00
CRDT- 2006/05/13 09:00
PHST- 2006/01/26 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2006/03/28 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2006/05/13 09:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2007/02/08 09:00 [medline]
PHST- 2006/05/13 09:00 [entrez]
AID - 10.1007/s00431-006-0152-x [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Eur J Pediatr. 2006 Oct;165(10):696-700. doi: 10.1007/s00431-006-0152-x. Epub 
      2006 May 12.