BACKGROUND: Obesity has become a public health problem worldwide. Our objective was to calculate the prevalence of overweight and obesity. METHODS: It is a cross sectional study of adolescents in private Lebanese schools, aged 10-18 years. Gender, birth date and measures of weight and height were recorded. RESULTS: In 12,299 adolescents, we found high prevalence of obesity (7.5%) and at risk of obesity (24.4%). In girls, risk of obesity and obesity prevalence decrease with increasing age (P < 10(-4)) as compared with that in boys. CONCLUSION: Early recognition of obesity should become routine in paediatric ambulatory care settings.
BACKGROUND:Obesity has become a public health problem worldwide. Our objective was to calculate the prevalence of overweight and obesity. METHODS: It is a cross sectional study of adolescents in private Lebanese schools, aged 10-18 years. Gender, birth date and measures of weight and height were recorded. RESULTS: In 12,299 adolescents, we found high prevalence of obesity (7.5%) and at risk of obesity (24.4%). In girls, risk of obesity and obesity prevalence decrease with increasing age (P < 10(-4)) as compared with that in boys. CONCLUSION: Early recognition of obesity should become routine in paediatric ambulatory care settings.
Authors: Phuong Van Ngoc Nguyen; Tang Kim Hong; Truong Hoang; Dung The Nguyen; Annie R Robert Journal: BMC Public Health Date: 2013-02-15 Impact factor: 3.295