Determinants of overweight tracking from childhood to adolescence: a 5 y follow-up study of Hat Yai schoolchildren

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To study the determinants of overweight tracking from childhood to adolescence of Hat Yai schoolchildren. DESIGN: A longitudinal study. SETTING: Primary and secondary schools of Hat Yai municipality, southern Thailand. SUBJECTS: 2252 schoolchildren recruited in 1992 and follow-up for 5 y. MEASUREMENTS: Child's annual body mass index (BMI, kgam 2 ) from 1992 to 1997; parental BMIs, parental income, and family history of diseases by a questionnaire completed by parents in 1992. RESULTS: Prevalence of overweight of males using the 85th percentile of the U S First National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey reference for age and sex as a cut-off point increased from 12.4% in 1992 to 21% in 1997, whereas that of females went down from 15.2 to 12.6. At the end of the ®fth year, 11.8% of children remained overweight while 4.5% became overweight. Comparing to the non-overweights, the risk for becoming an overweight adolescent of an overweight boy was 8.2 (95% con®dence interval (CI) 6, 11.2) whereas that of the overweight girls was 20 (95% CI 12.4, 32.3). The generalized estimating equations model predicted an increase in child BMI associated with having a father or a mother with high BMI, a family history of obesity, a monthly income greater than 5000 baht, and a lower level of exercise than their peers. Secular increase in BMI was also observed. CONCLUSION: Predictors of overweight tracking found in this study would be useful to select children at risk for preventive intervention.

A comparison of international references for the assessment of child and adolescent overweight and obesity in different populations

“…There is no evidence suggesting that the population's living standards have declined during this period (CNBS, 1999). In addition, although a large body of literature shows that, in general, about one-third of obese children and one-half of adolescents in the USA and many other industrialized countries remained obese as adults (Power et al, 1997;Serdula et al, 1993), using the IOTF and WHO overweight references, we and Mo-suwan et al found that only approximately 10% of overweight children remained overweight as adolescents 5 - International references for child and adolescent obesity Y Wang and JQ Wang 6 y later (Mo-suwan et al, 2000;Wang et al, 2000a,b). We suspect that at least part of the remarked difference is due to a lower sensitivity of these two references to identify overweight individuals during adolescence than childhood in developing countries.…”

Prevalence of Obesity in School Children and Its Relation to Lifestyle Behaviors in Al-Ahsa District of Saudi Arabia

“…Furthermore, obesity was more prevalent for those children when both parents were overweight compared with those with only one or neither parent was overweight (Mo-suwan, Tongkumchum, & Puetpaiboon, 2000). This could be due to sharing genes and unhealthy dietary habits of obese subjects and their obese parents.…”

Stability of body mass index in Australian children: a prospective cohort study across the middle childhood years

“…Evidence on the proportion of children whose overweight or obesity resolves is considerably more limited, and studies provide conflicting results 13 -15 . Various definitions of overweight resolution, small sample sizes 13 , poor retention rates 13,14 and different populations make the comparison of results across studies difficult. Yet these children are of particular interest, as they may offer insights into prevention and management strategies.…”

“…For children in the middle childhood years the incidence of overweight and obesity appears to be relatively low 13,14 . However, the accuracy of these estimates is uncertain as the studies upon which these data are based had very low retention rates.…”