Adolescent BMI at Northern Israel

Abstract

The increasing prevalence of abnormal body mass index (BMI), mainly obesity, is becoming a significant public health problem. This cross-sectional study aimed to provide a comprehensive view of secular trends of BMI, and the associated socio-demographic variables and comorbidities among adolescents with abnormal BMI. Individuals of the study population were born mainly between 1970 and 1993, and were examined at 16 to 19 years of age during the years 1987 to 2010, at 1 conscription center in the northern district of Israel.The study population included 113,694 adolescents. Univariate and multivariable logistic regression models were used to investigate the associations between BMI categories, socio-demographic variables, and medical conditions.A downward trend in the prevalence of normal BMI among both male and female adolescents was obtained, while trends of overweight and obesity (in both genders) and underweight (only among females) rose. Socio-demographic variables such as religion, education, family-related parameters, residential environment, country of birth, and origin were all associated with different risks for abnormal BMI. Obesity was associated with higher risk for hyperlipidemia, endocrine disorders (only in males), knee disorders, and hypertension type I + II (in both genders). Overweight was associated with knee disorders (only in females). Underweight, exclusively in males, was associated with increased risk for endocrine disorders, proteinuria, and cardiac disorders. Hierarchical clustering analysis revealed the intricate relations between gender, BMI, and medical signatures. It brought to light novel clusters of diseases that were abundant among populations having above-normal BMI or underweight males. Furthermore, above-normal BMI was associated with a lower rate of cardiac anomalies and scoliosis/kyphosis, whereas being underweight was associated with a lower risk for hypertension and flat foot.This study provides a reliable and in-depth view of secular trends in height, weight, and BMI of male and female adolescents. It supports previous associations between abnormal BMI and demographic variables and comorbidities, while uncovering novel associations, mainly regarding medical signatures of each gender–BMI group. This might lead to better monitoring, early detection, prevention, and treatment of various conditions associated to abnormal BMI categories and gender groups.

Secular trends in overweight and obesity among urban children and adolescents, 2003–2012: A serial cross-sectional study in Guangzhou, China

“…Many other countries, such as India 32 , Northern Israel 33 , Scotland 34 , and Korea 35 , have also witnessed an increasing trend in childhood overweight and obesity. In India, the prevalence of obesity in urban Asian adolescents aged 14–17 years increased significantly from 9.8% to 11.7% between 2006 and 2009 32 .…”

Rheumatic Fever in Large Cohort of Adolescents in Israel

“…Israel is a large mix of immigrants and locally born populations. Nevertheless, it is imperative to note that immigrants to Israel came from diverse countries and over the years of our study, mainly the FUSSR and Ethiopia (33,35), which vary in term of available medical services including diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment. There were no cases of ARF among the Ethiopian origin population of our study.…”

“…The limitations are that certain populations, such as Arabs and the ultra-orthodox Jews, are under-represented [for further details see Supplementary Materials in (33)]. These populations have been found to have a higher incidence of ARF, making our results conservative but precluding the ability to investigate associations within these populations.…”

From Population Databases to Research and Informed Health Decisions and Policy

“…In Israel, where military service is compulsory by law, a distinctive opportunity to collect baseline medical data from medical examinations at recruitment centers enables us to learn about the health status of the bulk of the general young population (over 70% of the population), adolescents at the age of 16–19 in a premilitary service status ( 27 ). The thorough and comprehensive medical process at the army recruitment centers generate a massive database, which is only seldom viewed as integral to “non-military” health medical databases, as information sharing is only anecdotal rather than systematic.…”

“…Such studies can deal with prevalence and incidence of the medical condition among selected populations, secular trends of certain medical conditions, possible associations with sociodemographic variables, and interrelations with different anthropometric indices and other medical conditions. Previous studies that explored the IDF medical databases, or selected subpopulations based on year of examination, gender, region, etc., have focused on medical conditions such as extreme body-mass index ( 27 , 39 – 45 ), hypertension ( 46 , 47 ), asthma and other common respiratory diseases ( 48 – 51 ), myopia ( 52 ), cardiovascular diseases ( 53 ), diverse orthopedic disorders ( 54 – 57 ), inflammatory bowel disease ( 58 ), and others ( 59 ). These medical data can be linked to other sources of information, for example: the Israel National Cancer Registry ( 60 – 69 ), the Israeli Treated End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) registry ( 70 ), and the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics ( 71 ).…”