[Overweight and obesity in children aged 5-11 years in Mexico - Why is necessary an interdisciplinary approach?]

Abstract

Introduction: Introduction: overweight and obesity in children are serious public health problems in Mexico. Objective: to analyze the behavior of the prevalence of overweight and obesity in children from 5 to 11 years of age and to present projections on the prevalence for the period 2022-2026. Methodology: ecological and retrospective study whose units of analysis were groups of children of Mexico with overweight and obesity in the period 1999-2021, according to information collected from six National Health and Nutrition Surveys. For the projections the classical method of least squares was used, for a trend analysis of both conditions for the period 2022-2026. Results: overweight in girls and obesity in boys shows a high prevalence in the period 1999-2021, even though the trend analysis for the period 2022-2026 shows a slight decrease in overweight for the group of boys and a slight increase in overweight for girls, as well in obesity for both groups. Conclusions: due to the high prevalence of overweight and obesity in children from 5 to 11 years of age in Mexico, an interdisciplinary approach is required to identify which dimensions (biochemical, psychological, interpersonal and social) participate in the problem, considering three environments contributing for psychological and social development of children, the ecological-social, the family and the school.