OBJECTIVE:To assess the association between socioeconomic status (SES) and childhood obesity, and which factor in particular stands out in relation to obesity. METHODS: When 2020 children attended their obligatory health exam prior to school entry in the City of Aachen, Germany, 1979 parents (97.9%) filled out a questionnaire on their child's weight development and on indicators of their family's SES in a cross-sectional survey. In addition, standardized measures of weight and height were taken. More detailed information on several different SES variables, such as parental education, occupation, income, family constellation, single parenthood, and the location and size of the family residence was obtained by personal interviews in a subsample of all native German speaking children with a BMIZ85th percentile, defined as cases (n ¼ 146), and with a BMI between the 40th and 60th percentile, defined as controls (n ¼ 221). RESULTS: The indicators of parental education were most strongly associated with children's obesity. There was a strong doseresponse relationship between a composed index of social class and obesity. Children of the lowest social status had a more than three-fold risk to be obese than children of the highest social status in the screening population (OR: 3.29, CI: 1.92-5.63). CONCLUSIONS: The findings established a strong relationship between parental years of education and childhood obesity. Prevention and treatment programs should endeavor to better target undereducated parents and their young children at high risk.

In concurrence with studies on adulthood, binge eating is linked to obesity already in early childhood. Children of mothers with eating disorders and children of mothers with a non-German native language are at increased risk of developing eating disorders themselves. Future studies should focus on obesity and eating disorders in early childhood; prevention programs should seek to target young children at risk as early as possible.

This paper offers insight into the development and the standardisation of the social-pediatric screening, SOPESS. The screening was developed for assessing children's developmental stages in the context of the health examination for school entry in North Rhine Westphalia. As the cutoff date regarding age, time of school entry has been rendered flexible, health examinations are due up to six months earlier than before. The screening's theoretical basis is described, its development and standardisation are presented, and its psychometric properties reported.

SUMMARY A three generation pedigree is described in which there are two carriers of translocation t(7; 18). We present a family with translocation t(7q+; 18p -) in which two female carriers of the balanced translocation have transmitted holoprosencephaly (one with proven monosomy 18p) and pure trisomy 1 8p to their offspring. Case reportsThe male proband (111.2, fig 1)

On account of the recent increases in prevalence of childhood obesity in Western countries, the present study tried to verify a secular trend for increasing body mass index (BMI; kg/m 2 ) in preschool children in Aachen, Germany. The total sample was based on weight and height data for all 99,500 children of German nationality before enrollment in school in the City of Aachen from 1968-1999. For each year, 10% of the boys and girls respectively, were randomly selected for the analyses. Quantile regression was used to examine the pattern and extent of change in BMI percentiles over this 31-year period. Anthropometric data of a total of 5081 boys and 4863 girls were subjected to quantile regression. While significant increases occurred for any given BMI percentile, the annual increase for both sexes was most prominent in the upper range. No change in body height was observed during the study period. Conclusion: preschool children have gained a higher body mass index during the last 30 years. The mechanisms underlying the secular trend towards increasing body mass index seemingly affect children in the upper weight range more than those in the lower range.