Recent Trends in Body Mass Index and Waist Circumference among Children and Adolescents in Shandong China.

Abstract

The present study examined the recent trends in body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC), and the prevalence of general and abdominal obesity among children and adolescents in Shandong, China. Data for this study were obtained from two cross-sectional surveys of schoolchildren carried out in 2010 and 2014 in Shandong Province, China. A total of 72755 students aged 7-18 years were included in this study. The BMI cutoff points recommended by the International Obesity Task Force were used to define overweight and general obesity. Abdominal obesity was defined as waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) ≥ 0.5. Both BMI and WHtR were used to define three types of obesity as follows: general obesity only, abdominal obesity only and combined obesity. For both boys and girls, an increasing trend in BMI and WC was observed between 2010 and 2014 (p < 0.01), WC has increased faster than BMI. The sum of the prevalence of the three types of obesity increased from 16.63% (boys) and 8.13% (girls) in 2010 to 20.37% (boys) and 11.61% (girls) in 2014 (p < 0.01). WC and abdominal obesity increased faster than BMI and general obesity among children and adolescents between 2010 and 2014. This study also suggested that distinguishing the types of obesity and examining the prevalence of various types of obesity are useful in practice.