Trends in the Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity among Chinese School-Age Children and Adolescents from 2010 to 2015

Abstract

Background: In China, recent rapid economic growth has been associated with increasing prevalence of childhood obesity. This study aimed to provide the most updated prevalence and trends in overweight and obesity among school-age children and adolescents in Shanghai, China, in 2010-2015.

Methods: Annual physical examination data were collected from 66,410, 43,812, 104,887, 113,667, 119,401, and 109,068 school children and adolescents aged 6-17 in Minhang District, Shanghai, in 2010-2015. The outcome of interest was the prevalence of overweight and obesity based on the body mass index (BMI) criteria from the International Obesity Task Force.

Results: In 2010-2015, the age-adjusted prevalence of overweight and obesity among boys increased from 21.2% to 31.7% and from 10.6% to 16.9% among girls. In 2015, the prevalence of obesity among boys was 9.3% higher than among girls (3.5%). The prevalence for boys was consistently higher than that for girls at each age and across years. The prevalence of overweight and obesity was highest at 11 years: 37.3% for boys and 19.8% for girls.

Conclusions: The prevalence of overweight and obesity among Chinese urban children and adolescents is comparable to that in developed countries and was still increasing in 2010-2015. The prevalence among boys was alarmingly high. The findings highlight the need to develop public intervention strategies targeting urban children to stop the increasing trend in childhood obesity in China.

Keywords: body mass index; childhood obesity; intervention age group; prevalence; temporal trend.