Thinness, Overweight and Obesity in a National Sample of Iranian Children and Adolescents: Caspian Study Publisher Pubmed



Kelishadi R¹ ; Ardalan G² ; Gheiratmand R³ ; Majdzadeh R⁴ ; Hosseini M⁵ ; Gouya MM⁶ ; Razaghi EM⁷ ; Delavari A⁷ ; Motaghian M⁸ ; Barekati H⁷ ; Mahmoudarabi MS⁷ ; Lock K⁹
Source: Child: Care, Health and Development Published:2008

Abstract

Background: This study was conducted to assess the national prevalence of different grades of nutritional status (underweight, normal weight, overweight and obesity) among Iranian school-students and to compare the prevalence of overweight and obesity using three different sets of criteria. Methods: This cross-sectional national survey was conducted on a representative sample of 21111 school students including 10253 boys (48.6%) and 10858 girls (51.4%) aged 6-18 years, selected by multistage random cluster sampling from urban (84.6%) and rural (15.4%) areas of 23 provinces in Iran The percentage of subjects in the corresponding body mass index (BMI) categories of the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) and the obtained national percentiles were assessed and compared. Results: There was no gender differences in BMI, but was higher in boys living in urban than in rural areas (18.4 ± 3.88 vs. 17.86 ± 3.66 kg/m 2 respectively, P < 0.05). The prevalence of underweight was 13.9% (8.1% of boys and 5.7% of girls) according to the CDC percentiles, and 5% (2.6% of boys and 2.4% of girls) according to the obtained percentiles. According to the CDC, IOTF and national cut-offs, the prevalence of overweight was 8.82%, 11.3% and 10.1% respectively; and the prevalence of obesity was 4.5%, 2.9% and 4.79% respectively. The prevalence of overweight was highest (10.98%) in the 12-year-old group and that of obesity (7.81%) in the 6-year-old group. The kappa correlation coefficient was 0.71 between the CDC and IOTF criteria, 0.64 between IOTF and national cut-offs, and 0.77 between CDC and national cut-offs. Conclusions: The findings of this study warrant the necessity of paying special attention to monitoring of the time trends in child obesity based on uniform definitions, as well as to design programmes to prevent and control associated factors. © 2007 The Authors; Journal compilation © 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.