Abstract
BackgroundLarge population growth surveys of children and adolescents aged 6 to 18 y were undertaken in Hong Kong in 1963 and 1993. The global epidemic of obesity is a major public health concern. To monitor the impact of this epidemic in Hong Kong children and to identify secular changes in growth, a further growth survey was undertaken in 2005/6.MethodsCross-sectional height and weight measurements of 14,842 children and adolescents aged 6 to 18 y from Hong Kong's 18 districts were obtained during the 2005/6 school year. Percentile curves were constructed using LMS method and sex-specific percentile values of weight-for-age, height-for-age, and BMI-for-age were compared with those data from 1963 and 1993.ResultsSecular changes in height, weight and BMI were noted between 1963 and 1993 and between 1993 and 2005/6. In the latter period, greater changes were observed at younger ages, and particularly in boys. On an annual basis, the 1993–2005/6 changes were less than those during 1963–1993. Using the International Obesity Task Force cut-offs, 16.7% of children were overweight or obese in 2005/6, which was a 5.1% increase since 1993.ConclusionThese data provide policy-makers with further evidence of the secular changes in child growth and the increasing obesity epidemic among Hong Kong children.
Highlights
Large population growth surveys of children and adolescents aged 6 to 18 y were undertaken in Hong Kong in 1963 and 1993
As body weight can be assumed to be normally distributed, the sample size for each age group was calculated in terms of the standard deviation of the 100αth centile (c100α, alpha = 0.05 for 95th percentile) and the age-specific standard deviation (SD), using the sample size planning formula developed by Healy [10]
Seven percent (n = 520) of the primary and 10% (n = 880) of the secondary school students declined to participate in the study (15% government, 60% aided and 25% private schools)
Summary
Large population growth surveys of children and adolescents aged 6 to 18 y were undertaken in Hong Kong in 1963 and 1993. In 1963, a cross-sectional study of 14,686 children from 17 schools was undertaken to develop height and weight standards for Hong Kong children aged 6 to 20 y [5] This was followed in 1993 by a Growth Survey of 25,000 children from birth to 18 y recruited from Maternal and Child Health Centres (MCHC) and schools. These data were used to develop Hong Kong's current growth charts for weight, height, weight-for-age, weight-for-height and body mass index (BMI) [6,7,8]. The current study aimed to monitor secular changes in weight, height and BMI of Hong Kong children aged 6 to 18 y, with a particular view to documenting the extent of the evolving obesity epidemic
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