Paula Häkkänen1,2, Anna But3, Eeva Ketola4, Tiina Laatikainen5,6,7. 1. Social Services and Health Care Division, School and Student Welfare, Helsinki, Finland. 2. Department of General Practice and Primary Health Care, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland. 3. Department of Public Health, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland. 4. Information Services, National Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland. 5. Institute of Public Health and Clinical Nutrition, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland. 6. Siun Sote - The Joint Municipal Authority for North Karelia Social and Health Services, Joensuu, Finland. 7. Department of Public Health Solutions, National Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland.
Abstract
AIM: We aimed to identify groups of primary school children with similar overweight development, reveal age-related patterns of overweight development in the resulting groups and analyse overweight-related school healthcare interventions. METHODS: This retrospective longitudinal register study utilised electronic health records from six primary school years. From a random sample of 2000 sixth graders, we derived a study cohort of 508 children meeting criteria for overweight at least once during primary school. We investigated how many different groups (latent classes) of children with similar weight development would emerge by applying flexible latent class mixed models on body mass index standard deviation score. We also explored the resulting groups with respect to offered overweight-related interventions. RESULTS: Per child, the data consisted in median 7 growth measurements over 5.4 years. We identified five overweight development groups for girls and four for boys. The groups converged temporarily around age 10 after which only some continued into obesity. School nurses and physicians offered overweight-related interventions to children with obesity, less to children gaining weight or with overweight. CONCLUSION: Obesity prevention might benefit from awareness of typical overweight development patterns when designing intervention studies or planning and timing multidisciplinary school health check programmes.
AIM: We aimed to identify groups of primary school children with similar overweight development, reveal age-related patterns of overweight development in the resulting groups and analyse overweight-related school healthcare interventions. METHODS: This retrospective longitudinal register study utilised electronic health records from six primary school years. From a random sample of 2000 sixth graders, we derived a study cohort of 508 children meeting criteria for overweight at least once during primary school. We investigated how many different groups (latent classes) of children with similar weight development would emerge by applying flexible latent class mixed models on body mass index standard deviation score. We also explored the resulting groups with respect to offered overweight-related interventions. RESULTS: Per child, the data consisted in median 7 growth measurements over 5.4 years. We identified five overweight development groups for girls and four for boys. The groups converged temporarily around age 10 after which only some continued into obesity. School nurses and physicians offered overweight-related interventions to children with obesity, less to children gaining weight or with overweight. CONCLUSION:Obesity prevention might benefit from awareness of typical overweight development patterns when designing intervention studies or planning and timing multidisciplinary school health check programmes.