Secular trends of obesity prevalence in urban Chinese children from 1985 to 2010: gender disparity.

Yi Song,Zhiqiang Wang,Jun Ma,Hai-Jun Wang,Guoying Wang

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0053069

Abstract

Based on the data from six Chinese National Surveys on Students Constitution and Health (CNSSCH) from 1985 to 2010, we explored the secular trend in the prevalence of obesity in urban Chinese children over a period of 25 years. The aim of this study was to examine the gender disparities in the prevalence of childhood obesity over time. The standardized prevalence of obesity in Chinese children increased rapidly during the past 25 years from 0.2% in 1985 to 8.1% in 2010. The increasing trend was significant in all age subgroups (p<0.01). Although the prevalence of obesity continuously increased in both boys and girls, the changing pace in boys was faster than that in girls. Age-specific prevalence odds ratios (PORs) of boys versus girls for obesity increased over time during the 25 year period. The prevalence of obesity in boys was significantly higher than in girls in all age-specific subgroups from 1991 and after. The gradually expanding gender disparity suggests the prevalence of obesity in boys contribute to a large and growing proportion of obese children. Therefore, it is critical for developing and implementing gender-specific preventive guidelines and public health policies in China.

Highlights

The increasing prevalence of obesity among children and adolescents is a crisis and challenge in public health worldwide [1,2]
The prevalence odds ratios (PORs) increased over time in all age subgroups, especially in 13 to 15- year subgroup where the POR increased from 0.92 in 1985 to 2.31 in 2010
We found that obesity prevalence was continuously increasing in Chinese children, and more importantly that the change of obesity in Chinese urban children was different across gender- and age-specific subgroups

Summary

Introduction

The increasing prevalence of obesity among children and adolescents is a crisis and challenge in public health worldwide [1,2]. The highest prevalence of childhood obesity has been observed in developed countries; the prevalence is increasing in developing countries as well [3]. With its rapid economic increase in recent three decades, has undergone epidemiological and demographic transitions affecting its population’s nutritional status and created environments that contribute to increase in obesity prevalence, especially in the urban areas. The prevalence of childhood obesity has increased dramatically in Chinese children. Ji et al reported that the prevalence of obesity increased from 0.13% in 1985 to 3.82% in 2005 in China [7,8]

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