Prevalence and tendency of overweight and obesity in a 6–7 years old children after a 3–6 years long observation.

Abstract

There are publications showing the risk of prevalence of obesity in adulthood depending on body mass in different age during childhood. Few are showing changes of body mass before and after the puberty age. The aim of this paper was assessing the prevalence of obesity in 6–7 years old children and assessing the trends in body mass changes during 3–6 years long observation. Results anthropometric assessment of 5275 children that took part in two health programs organized by Center for Promotion of Children’s Health and Fitness during 1992–2011 were assessed. During first examination children were 6–7 years old and they were 9–13 years old at the time of second examination. We were analyzing they BMI centile (using polish reference charts) of each age group and migration of children between set centile sections during the years of observation. Children aged 6–7 that were below the 75 centile of BMI had over 3.5 lover risk of developing obesity in the next 3–6 years than children with BMI between 75 and 84 centile. Children with BMI centile below 75 had a much higher probability on staying in their centile section than children between 75 and 84 centile of BMI. Although BMI between 75 and 84 centile is assessed to be a proper body mass it gives a much higher probability in developing overweight and obesity in a short term observation of 3–6 years in a developing age of pre- and post-pubertal children.