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Comparative Study
. 2011;6(11):e27608.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0027608. Epub 2011 Nov 15.

Increase in prevalence of overweight in Dutch children and adolescents: a comparison of nationwide growth studies in 1980, 1997 and 2009

Yvonne Schönbeck  1 , Henk Talma, Paula van Dommelen, Boudewijn Bakker, Simone E Buitendijk, Remy A Hirasing, Stef van Buuren
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Increase in prevalence of overweight in Dutch children and adolescents: a comparison of nationwide growth studies in 1980, 1997 and 2009

Yvonne Schönbeck et al. PLoS One. 2011.

Abstract

Objective: To assess the prevalence of overweight and obesity among Dutch children and adolescents, to examine the 30-years trend, and to create new body mass index reference charts.

Design: Nationwide cross-sectional data collection by trained health care professionals.

Participants: 10,129 children of Dutch origin aged 0-21 years.

Main outcome measures: Overweight (including obesity) and obesity prevalences for Dutch children, defined by the cut-off values on body mass index references according to the International Obesity Task Force.

Results: In 2009, 12.8% of the Dutch boys and 14.8% of the Dutch girls aged 2-21 years were overweight and 1.8% of the boys and 2.2% of the girls were classified as obese. This is a two to three fold higher prevalence in overweight and four to six fold increase in obesity since 1980. Since 1997, a substantial rise took place, especially in obesity, which increased 1.4 times in girls and doubled in boys. There was no increase in mean BMI SDS in the major cities since 1997.

Conclusions: Overweight and obesity prevalences in 2009 were substantially higher than in 1980 and 1997. However, the overweight prevalence stabilized in the major cities. This might be an indication that the rising trend in overweight in The Netherlands is starting to turn.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. BMI distribution for Dutch boys and girls in 2009.
The solid lines represent −3 (0.1th), −2 (2.3th), −1 (16th), 0 (50th), +1 (84th), +2 (97.7th) SDS. The dotted lines represent international cut-off values for obesity (30 kg/m2), overweight (25 kg/m2), thinness grade II (17 kg/m2) and thinness grade III (16 kg/m2) , . Effective degrees of freedom (edf) of the model of boys: 12 (M curve), 3 (S curve), 3 (L curve). Effective degrees of freedom (edf) of the model of girls: 9 (M curve), 4 (S curve), and 3 (L curve).
Figure 2
Figure 2. Prevalence of overweight and obesity in Dutch boys and girls according to international cut-off values .
Figure 3
Figure 3. Mean BMI SDS per geographical regions and parental education in 1997 and 2009.
Mean BMI SDS with 95% confidence interval per geographical region and level of parental education in 1997 and 2009.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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