Anthropometric assessment of children aged between 6 and 14 years from a school in Lisbon

Abstract

As a global epidemic, obesity is currently a significant public health challenge, especially in children. Childhood obesity is related to short term consequences, but also with an increased risk to develop many comorbidities in adult life, such as cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, strokes, and others. A cross-sectional study to assess the prevalence of normal weight, pre-obesity and obesity in school-aged children was designed. The final sample size analyzed included 81 participants (47 boys and 34 girls) aged between 6 and 14 years old. Pre-obesity and obesity were determined according to the BMI cut-off points adopted by the IOTF. Although no significant differences were found, the prevalence of pre-obesity and obesity for the total population studied was 16.00% and 6.20%, respectively, with 14.60%, and 4.30% for boys and 17.60% and 8.80% for girls. More girls were pre-obese and obese than boys except at ages 9 and 12. The same age that boys presented cardiometabolic risk associated with a WHtR>0.50. These results emphasize the importance of nutritional status assessment to develop appropriate actions to prevent childhood obesity.