[Body mass index measurements in 1996-7 compared with 1980] 2000;82:107-12
The West is in the grip of an obesity epidemic, finds a study from the Netherlands in Archives of Disease in Childhood. Similar to the picture seen in the UK over recent years, the numbers of obese children in the Netherlands have almost doubled.
In 1996-97 some 14,500 children from the age of one month to 21 years were weighed and measured. They represented a range of geographical area, educational level, and family size across the Netherlands. The figures were compared with those from a similar exercise undertaken in 1980, the results of which formed a national standard against which to measure expected height and weight.
Between 1980 and 1997 the number of obese children had almost doubled. From the age of three onwards over one in five was obese. A phenomenon known as the adiposity rebound in childhood predicts the subsequent level of adult obesity. This reflects the normal pattern of weight gain as an infant, followed by weight loss as a young child, and then the point at which weight gain flattens out. In 1980 this was reached at the age of six and in 1996-97 at the age of five and a half. The fattest children reached it up to three years earlier than the thinnest children. The earlier the rebound, the greater the risk of adult obesity, say the authors. Children in large cities with poorly educated parents were at the greatest risk of obesity, the research showed.
Children are taller than they were, say the authors, and mature earlier, accounting for some of the differences, but they are still fatter in terms of weight per height than they were in 1980. Between 1965 and 1980, say the authors, there was little change in children's overall weight, so the sharp increase is a recent occurrence, and cannot be attributed to genetic factors. Not eating breakfast, snacking, and eating too many foods containing invisible fats may all be to blame, they say.
Contact: Professor J M de Wit, TNO Prevention and Health, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Journal
Archives of Disease in Childhood