Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Oct;23(14):2478-2484.
doi: 10.1017/S1368980020000476. Epub 2020 May 27.

Trends in the prevalence of overweight, obesity and underweight in French children, aged 4-12 years, from 2013 to 2017

Jérémy Vanhelst  1 , Jean-Benoît Baudelet  2 , David Thivel  3 , Hervé Ovigneur  4 , Thibault Deschamps  4
Affiliations

Trends in the prevalence of overweight, obesity and underweight in French children, aged 4-12 years, from 2013 to 2017

Jérémy Vanhelst et al. Public Health Nutr. 2020 Oct.

Abstract

Objective: To assess the prevalence of underweight, overweight and obesity in French children from 2013 to 2017.

Design: Cross-sectional study performed in fourteen regions of France. Physical measures included weight, height and BMI. Underweight, overweight and obesity were defined according to age- and sex-specific BMI cut-off points from the International Obesity Task Force.

Setting: France.

Subjects: Children (10 159 boys, 9757 girls) from the voluntary, non-representative Diagnoform programme between 2013 and 2017, at the age of 4-12 years.

Results: The prevalence of overweight and obesity was higher in girls compared with boys (P < 0·001). Underweight was also more prevalent in girls (P < 0·05). Although there were no significant changes in the prevalence of obesity in boys or girls from 2013 to 2017, a significant decrease in overweight among boys and girls was found (P < 0·001) during the same time period. In contrast, the prevalence of underweight increased in girls and boys (from 10·0 to 20·0 %, P < 0·0001) between 2013 and 2017.

Conclusions: Results of the current study show that the prevalence of obesity was stable, while the prevalence of overweight decreased significantly, despite high in French children. Findings suggest also that thinness is becoming an important phenomenon in children. Developing preventive and nutritional programmes in order to modify the lifestyle might help control underweight and obesity in children.

Keywords: France; Obesity; Overweight; Prevalence; Underweight.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Prevalence rates of (a) underweight, (b) overweight and (c) obesity among French children aged 4–12 years from 2013 to 2017. formula image, total; formula image, boys; formula image, girls; formula image, 4–6 years; formula image, 7–9 years; formula image, 10–12 years
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Wijnhoven TM, van Raaij JM, Spinelli A et al. (2013) WHO European Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative 2008: weight, height and body mass index in 6-9-year-old children. Pediatr Obes 8, 79–97. - PubMed
    1. Garrido-Miguel M, Cavero-Redondo I, Álvarez-Bueno C et al. (2019) Prevalence and trends of overweight and obesity in European children from 1999 to 2016: a systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA Pediatr 10, e192430. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Hruby A, Manson JE, Qi L et al. (2016) Determinants and consequences of obesity. Am J Public Health 106, 1656–1662. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Llewellyn A, Simmonds M, Owen CG et al. (2016) Childhood obesity as a predictor of morbidity in adulthood: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Obes Rev 17, 56–67. - PubMed
    1. Vanhelst J, Baudelet JB, Fardy PS et al. (2017) Prevalence of overweight, obesity, underweight and normal weight in French youth from 2009 to 2013. Public Health Nutr 20, 959–964. - PMC - PubMed