Stabilisation of the trend in prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity in Spain: 2001-11

Abstract

Backgrounds: To ascertain whether the prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity had stabilised in Spain, in the same way as in other developed countries.

Methods: Data were drawn from the 2001, 2006 and 2011 Spanish National Health Surveys. We estimated overweight and obesity on the basis of body mass index, and then calculated the prevalence of overweight and obesity for each year studied among boys and girls, respectively, in two different age groups; 5 -9 and 10 -15 years. The statistical significance of the trend in prevalence was evaluated using the chi-squared test.

Results: The trend in the prevalence of overweight was not significant, with the magnitude generally proving similar in 2006 and 2011, e.g. prevalence among girls was 37.2% in 2006 and 37.5% in 2011 in the 5-9 age group, and 17.7% in 2006 and 17.5% in 2011 in the 10-15 age group. The magnitude of the prevalence of obesity in each sex and age group was similar across the 3 years of study, except in the case of boys aged 5-9 years, among whom a significant downward trend was observed, with prevalence declining from 16.8% in 2001 to 14.4% in 2006 and 12.6% in 2011.

Conclusion: In Spain, the prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity stabilised during the first decade of the present century.