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Aim: High-quality national representative data on obesity in Romanian children are needed to shape public health policies. To providea unified data landscape on national prevalence, trends and other factors associated with underweight, overweight, and obesity in Romanian children aged 6-19 years, across the last decade (2006-2015). Methods: Using a common protocol, we selected published and unpublished studies that measured Romanian children in schools between 2006 and 2015. Children's BMI was classified using the current WHO, IOTF, and CDC references. Results: 25,060 children from 8 Romanian counties were included in the analysis. The prevalence of underweight children was 5%/4.5%/8.5% (WHO/IOTF/CDC), while the prevalence of overweight (including obese) children was 28.3%/23%/23.2% (WHO/IOTF/CDC). The prevalence of overweight children did not change significantly over the last decade (chi-square test p = 0.6). Male gender (odds ratio (OR) 1.37; 95% CI 1.29-1.45, compared to female); prepubertal age (OR = 3.86; 95% CI 3.41-4.36,compared to postpubertal age), and urban environment (OR 1.12; 95% CI 1.01-1.26, compared to rural environment) had higher risk for overweight. Conclusion: While the prevalence of underweight children was low, almost one in four children in Romania was overweight or obese (according to WHO criteria) between 2006 and 2015. This prevalence remained relatively stable over the last decade. Male gender, prepubertal age, and urban environment, were the most relevant risk factors associated with overweight status in Romanian children.

BackgroundEpidemiological data on obesity prevalence are scarce in Romanian population. Consequently, the aim of our study was to evaluate the prevalence of obesity and unhealthy behaviors among school children and adolescents from Bucharest, Romania.MethodsCross-sectional study, 866 participants (53.2% girls, 46.8% boys, age range 6–18 years), selected by systematic sampling with probability-proportionate-to-size from all Bucharest’s schools.Measurements: height, weight and a questionnaire to collect information about life style and eating behavior. Nutritional status was established based on World Health Organization recommendations (WHO), International Obesity Task Force (IOTF), Center for Diseases Control (USA-CDC) cut off values and local standards, respective.ResultsThe prevalence of overweight (including obese) and obesity alone based on different standards, was 31.6% and 11.4% (WHO), 24.6% and 6.2% respectively (IOTF), 25.2% and 10% (USA-CDC), 22.3% and 12.5% (local standards). When using local standards (weight only based), the obese subjects proportion among overweight children raised questions regarding the appropriateness of these standards. Overweight (including obese) prevalence was significantly higher among the boys versus girls: 36.2% vs. 27.6%, ( OR 1.5; 95% CI 1.12-2.03; p value = 0.006) and among the 6–10.9 years vs. 11–17.9 age group, (40.7% vs 26.6%). Almost all the participants (95%) reported at list one unhealthy eating behavior but no significant relationship was found with overweight or obesity only.ConclusionsThis first epidemiological study of obesity prevalence in school children and adolescents showed that 11.4% of Bucharest’s children and adolescents were obese by WHO classification, 6.1% by IOTF cut off values and 10% by CDC classification. Younger children and the boys were more affected no matter which standard we used. In spite of unsignificant relationship to the adiposity status, our data showed a high prevalence of unhealthy eating behaviors reported by the participants. Particular aspects of the overweight versus obesity prevalence, after applying local standards, suggests that international recognized algorithms should be used for constant epidemiological evaluation instead of establishing local criteria.

The aim of the study was to determine whether Romanian polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) patients have an increased prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MetS) and to study the involvement of adiposity, insulin resistance and hyperandrogenism in the pathogenesis of MetS in PCOS. A total of 398 PCOS patients and 126 controls were evaluated between January 2006 and December 2012. MetS was defined by National Cholesterol Education Program, Adult Treatment Panel III criteria. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to analyze the correlations among variables of interest by grouping them in few components, and principal component (PCs) scores were saved and used as independent variables in logistic regression. The prevalence of MetS was higher among patients with PCOS (20.4 %) than in controls (11.1 %, p < 0.05). In PCOS patients, PCA extracted three PCs from the analyzed variables. First PC aggregated variables related to adiposity and insulin resistance, with factor loadings showing strong relationship between these parameters. The second PC included markers of hyperandrogenemia and was best represented by free androgen index (FAI) which correlated strongly and exclusively with this PC. The third component was best represented by hirsutism. Logistic regression analysis revealed that in PCOS patients, the first and the second PCs were independently associated with MetS, whereas the third component was not. Romanian PCOS patients have an increased risk for MetS; adiposity, insulin resistance and hyperandrogenemia, but not hirsutism, are independent predictors of MetS presence. Our data also suggest that insulin resistance is only secondary to increased adiposity and FAI is a good marker of biochemical hyperandrogenism with little influences from the metabolic component.