Height and body-mass index trajectories of school-aged children and adolescents from 1985 to 2019 in 200 countries and territories: a pooled analysis of 2181 population-based studies with 65 million participants

Ncd-Risc Ncd-Risc

doi:10.1530/ey.18.13.15

Abstract

Height and body-mass index trajectories of school-aged children and adolescents from 1985 to 2019 in 200 countries and territories: a pooled analysis of 2181 population-based studies with 65 million participants

Highlights

Growth and development through childhood and adolescence are affected by social, nutritional, and environmental factors at home, at school, and in the community
Evidence before this study We searched MEDLINE for articles published from inception up to Aug 2, 2020, with no language restrictions, using the following search terms: (“body size”[mh:noexp] OR “body height”[mh:noexp] OR “body weight”[mh:noexp] OR “birth weight”[mh:noexp] OR “overweight”[mh:noexp] OR “obesity”[mh] OR “thinness”[mh:noexp] OR “Waist-Hip Ratio”[mh:noexp] OR “Waist Circumference”[mh:noexp] OR “body mass index”[mh:noexp]) AND (“Humans”[mh]) AND (“Health Surveys”[mh] OR “Epidemiological Monitoring”[mh] OR “Prevalence”[mh]) NOT Comment[ptyp] NOT Case Reports[ptyp]
We found three studies on trends in body-mass index (BMI) or overweight in children and adolescents, but only one of these studies separately reported trends for children aged 5–19 years

Summary

Introduction

Growth and development through childhood and adolescence are affected by social, nutritional, and environmental factors at home, at school, and in the community. We found global or multicountry studies on trends over time in height for adults and for children younger than 5 years, but not for school-aged children and adolescents. One multicountry study used cross-sectional height data in 53 community-based samples and reported height differences in children aged 10–17 years. We found three studies on trends in body-mass index (BMI) or overweight in children and adolescents, but only one of these studies separately reported trends for children aged 5–19 years. In terms of considering combined changes in height and BMI, the Lancet Series on the double burden of malnutrition used data on stunting in children younger than 5 years together with data on various measures of underweight and overweight at different ages, but did not have data on height in older children and adolescents, nor did it analyse trends

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