Dual Burden of Body Weight Among Iranian Children and Adolescents in 2003 and 2010: The Caspian-Iii Study Publisher



Rahmanian M¹ ; Kelishadi R² ; Qorbani M^{3, 4} ; Motlagh ME^{5, 6} ; Shafiee G^{7, 8} ; Aminaee T⁶ ; Ardalan G⁶ ; Taslimi M⁹ ; Poursafa P² ; Asayesh H¹⁰ ; Larijani B⁸ ; Heshmat R^{7, 8} Show Affiliations
Source: Archives of Medical Science Published:2014

Abstract

Introduction: Our aim was to compare changes of body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) curves of Iranian children by comparing the results of two national surveys of a surveillance program, i.e. CASPIAN-I (2003- 2004) and CASPIAN-III (2009-2010). The second objective was to evaluate the prevalence of obesity, overweight and underweight among 10-18-yearold Iranian children and adolescents. Material and methods: This study was performed among students who were selected by multistage random cluster sampling from urban and rural areas of 27 provinces of Iran, as part of a national survey of school student high risk behavior entitled CASPIAN-III, conducted in 2009-2010. Results: We evaluated 5088 school students (50.2% boys). In rural areas, underweight was more common in boys and overweight and obesity in girls. In urban areas underweight and obesity were more common in boys, whereas overweight was more common in girls. The highest prevalence of underweight (23.5%) was seen in students aged 13 years and the lowest (11.4%) in those aged 18 years. Underweight was significantly more common in rural than in urban areas (22.1% vs. 15.8%, respectively, p < 0.0001) and overweight/ obesity was more common in urban than in rural areas. Compared with the findings in 2003-2004, the overall prevalence of elevated body mass index (16.6%) including obesity (9.1%) and overweight (7.5%) as well as underweight (17.5%) increased from 2003 to 2010. Conclusions: In recent years, the double burden of nutritional disorders has increased among Iranian children and adolescents, especially in rural areas. This change may be related to epidemiologic transition, notably in terms of nutrition transition and rapid changes in lifestyle habits. This finding is an important issue for policy-makers for interventional preventive programs.