PMID- 23069237
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20131202
LR  - 20121016
IS  - 1646-0758 (Electronic)
IS  - 0870-399X (Linking)
VI  - 25
IP  - 3
DP  - 2012 May-Jun
TI  - Assessment of obesity and abdominal obesity among Portuguese children.
PG  - 169-73
AB  - BACKGROUND: Childhood obesity is a major public health issue in developed 
      countries, and frequently proceeds into adulthood. The aim of this study was to 
      estimate the prevalence of obesity and abdominal fat distribution in 6-12 years 
      old children from the central region of Portugal, providing new data about trends 
      on prevalence, epidemiology and evolution in obesity. METHODS: Weight, height and 
      waist circumference were measured in a random representative sample of 1,433 
      children (747 girls and 686 boys) from public schools in 2011. International 
      Obesity Task Force (IOTF) cut-offs were used to define overweight and obesity. 
      Abdominal obesity was estimated using the sex and age-specific = 90th waist 
      circumference percentile and waist-to-height ratio cut-off. RESULTS: The 
      prevalence of overweight and obesity among children was 33.0%; 10.7% were obese. 
      Overweight was significantly higher in boys than in girls (p = 0.044), whereas no 
      gender differences was found in obesity (10.6 % in boys and 10.7% in girls, p = 
      0.571). The prevalence of abdominal obesity based on waist circumference was 
      similar in girls and boys (3.8% vs. 3.9% respectively; p = 0.924), but 
      significantly higher in boys than in girls based on waist-to-height ratio (28.1% 
      vs. 19.4%, respectively; p = 0.009). Comparison with previous studies showed a 
      slightly increase in overweight/obesity in children of central Portugal in the 
      last 10 years, reaching values of 40.0% prevalence in the 7-9 years old. 
      CONCLUSION: In conclusion, this study shows a very high prevalence of 
      overweight/obesity and abdominal obesity among Portuguese children, following the 
      trend of other southern European countries. Thus, it is of the utmost importance 
      the development of preventive and treatment strategies.
FAU - Albuquerque, David
AU  - Albuquerque D
AD  - Research Centre for Anthropology and Health (CIAS), Department of Life Sciences 
      (Anthropology), University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal.
FAU - Nobrega, Clevio
AU  - Nobrega C
FAU - Samouda, Hanen
AU  - Samouda H
FAU - Manco, Licinio
AU  - Manco L
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
DEP - 20120723
PL  - Portugal
TA  - Acta Med Port
JT  - Acta medica portuguesa
JID - 7906803
SB  - IM
MH  - Child
MH  - Female
MH  - Humans
MH  - Male
MH  - Obesity/*epidemiology
MH  - Obesity, Abdominal/epidemiology
MH  - Portugal/epidemiology
MH  - Prevalence
EDAT- 2012/10/17 06:00
MHDA- 2013/12/16 06:00
CRDT- 2012/10/17 06:00
PHST- 2012/04/26 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2012/07/16 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2012/10/17 06:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2012/10/17 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2013/12/16 06:00 [medline]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Acta Med Port. 2012 May-Jun;25(3):169-73. Epub 2012 Jul 23.