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. 2020 Oct 12;15(10):e0240459.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0240459. eCollection 2020.

Overweight and obesity among Vietnamese school-aged children: National prevalence estimates based on the World Health Organization and International Obesity Task Force definition

Huong Duong Phan  1 , Thi Ngoc Phuong Nguyen  2 , Phuong Linh Bui  2   3 , Thanh Tung Pham  2   4 , Tuan Vu Doan  1 , Duc Thanh Nguyen  1 , Hoang Van Minh  2
Affiliations

Overweight and obesity among Vietnamese school-aged children: National prevalence estimates based on the World Health Organization and International Obesity Task Force definition

Huong Duong Phan et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Background: Overweight and obesity is a severe global health issue in both developed and developing nations. This study aims to estimate the national prevalence of overweight and obesity among school-aged children in Vietnam.

Method: We conducted a national cross-sectional study on 2788 children aged from 11-14 years old from September to November 2018. We applied the WHO 2007 and IOTF criteria to estimate the prevalence of overweight and obesity among participants. Poison regression analysis with cluster sampling adjustment was employed to assess associated factors with obesity and overweight. Metadata on sociodemographic characteristics, physical measurements, and lifestyle behaviors were also extracted to investigate these factors in association with overweight and obesity prevalence.

Results: The prevalences of overweight and obesity in Vietnamese children were 17.4% and 8.6%, respectively by WHO Z-score criteria, and 17.1% and 5.4%, according to the IOTF reference. Using WHO Z-score yielded a higher prevalence of obesity than the IOTF and CDC criteria of all ages and both sexes. The proportions of overweight and obesity were substantially higher among boys than girls across ages. Parental BMI was shown to be a significant factor associated with overweight/obesity status in both girls and boys. Only for boys, age (PR = 0.83, 95% CI 0.76-0.90) and belonging to ethnic minorities (PR = 0.43, 95% CI 0.24-0.76) were significant risk factors for overweight/obesity.

Conclusion: Our findings indicate a high prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity in Vietnam, especially in boys.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Comparison of the prevalence of overweight and obese children by sex based on four criteria: WHO Z-score, IOTF and CDC reference.
Red solid line: WHO Z-score (equivalent to 1SD-2SD for the overweight group and ≥3SD for the obese group. Black dash-dot line: IOTF (equivalent to 25–30 kg/m2 for the overweight group and ≥30 kg/m2 for the obese group at the age of 18. Green short-dash line: CDC (defines overweight as 85th = BMI <95 percentiles, and obesity as BMI = 95th percentile).
Fig 2
Fig 2. Risk factors for obesity by sex.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Risk factors for overweight and obesity by sex.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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