Abstract
BackgroundThe prevalence of overweight and obesity (OWOB) has stabilized in some countries, but a portion of children with high body mass index (BMI) may have become heavier. This study aimed to describe the distributions of BMI and the point prevalence of OWOB in Norwegian adolescents in 2002 and 2017.MethodsA cross-sectional study involving 15- to 16-year-old adolescents in Oppland, Norway, was undertaken in 2002 and 2017. We calculated their BMI, BMI z-scores (BMIz), and the prevalence of OWOB.ResultsThe mean BMI increased from 20.7 to 21.4 (p < 0.001) for girls but remained unchanged at 21.5 vs 21.4 (p = 0.80) for boys. The prevalence of OWOB increased from 9 to 14% among girls (difference 5, 95% CI: 2, 8) and from 17 to 20% among boys (difference 3, 95% CI: − 1, 6%). The BMI density plots revealed similar shapes at both time points for both sexes, but the distribution for girls shifted to the right from 2002 to 2017.ConclusionContrary to previous knowledge, we found that the increase in OWOB presented a uniform shift in the entire BMI distribution for 15–16-year-old Norwegian girls and was not due to a larger shift in a specific subpopulation in the upper percentiles.
Highlights
The prevalence of overweight and obesity (OWOB) has stabilized in some countries, but a portion of children with high body mass index (BMI) may have become heavier
The prevalence of adolescent overweight and obesity (OWOB) has increased over the last decades [5], and studies have found that this change is primarily due to increasing BMI in subgroups in the upper percentiles of the BMI distribution [6]
Relatively few European studies have addressed this issue in adolescents, and even fewer are based on data from the last decade when the obesity epidemic is said to have stabilized in some countries [11]
Summary
The prevalence of overweight and obesity (OWOB) has stabilized in some countries, but a portion of children with high body mass index (BMI) may have become heavier. The relationship between body mass index (BMI) in adolescence and subsequent health in adulthood is well established [1,2,3], and both overly low and overly high BMI values are of concern [4]. The prevalence of adolescent overweight and obesity (OWOB) has increased over the last decades [5], and studies have found that this change is primarily due to increasing BMI in subgroups in the upper percentiles of the BMI distribution [6]. Adolescents with obesity have a high risk of becoming adults with obesity [12]. As both the biology of OWOB [13] and comorbidities due to central fat distribution differ by sex [14], sex-related trends in adolescent OWOB are important to elucidate for public health reasons
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