Langendijk Germaine, Wellings Sue, van Wyk Marjorie, Thompson Samantha J, McComb John, Chusilp Kusuma
Nutrition Program, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
Asia Pac J Clin Nutr. 2003;12(1):66-72.
Childhood obesity is a serious public health problem because of its strong association with adulthood obesity and the related adverse health consequences. The published literature indicates a rising prevalence of childhood obesity in both developed and developing countries. However no data exists on the prevalence in Northeast Thailand, one of the poorest regions of the country and one that has experienced a recent economic transition. The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of obesity in seven to nine year old children in urban Khon Kaen, Northeast Thailand. A cross-sectional school based survey was conducted to determine the prevalence of obesity in children of urban Khon Kaen, Thailand. Multi-staged cluster sampling was used to select 12 school clusters of 72 children each between the ages of 7 and 9 years, in primary school grades 1, 2 and 3 from government, private and demonstration schools. A total of 864 seven to nine year old school children were studied. Anthropometric measurements of standing height and weight were taken for all subjects to the nearest tenth of a centimetre and tenth of a kilogram respectively, Childhood obesity was defined as a weight-for-height Z-score above 2.0 standard deviations of the National Center for Health Statistics/World Health Organisation reference population median. The prevalence of childhood obesity was 10.8% (95% CI: 7.6, 13.9). Obesity was significantly more prevalent in boys than girls. The biggest difference was observed between the three school types, with the highest prevalence of obesity found at teacher training demonstration schools and the lowest at the government schools. This study provides the first data on childhood obesity prevalence in Northeast Thailand. The prevalence of 10.8 per cent is lower than that found in two other urban areas of Thailand but slightly higher than expected for this relatively poor region. If this prevalence rate increases, as observed in other countries in economic transition, the incidence of non-communicable diseases associated with obesity is also likely to increase, thus raising cause for concern and reason for intervention to both control and prevent obesity during childhood.
儿童肥胖是一个严重的公共卫生问题，因为它与成人肥胖以及相关的不良健康后果密切相关。已发表的文献表明，发达国家和发展中国家儿童肥胖的患病率都在上升。然而，泰国东北部是该国最贫困的地区之一，且最近经历了经济转型，目前尚无该地区儿童肥胖患病率的数据。本研究的目的是估计泰国东北部孔敬市城区7至9岁儿童的肥胖患病率。我们进行了一项基于学校的横断面调查，以确定泰国孔敬市城区儿童的肥胖患病率。采用多阶段整群抽样方法，从政府、私立和示范学校的小学1、2、3年级中选取12个学校群组，每个群组有72名7至9岁的儿童。总共对864名7至9岁的学龄儿童进行了研究。对所有受试者进行了身高和体重的人体测量，身高精确到十分之一厘米，体重精确到十分之一千克。儿童肥胖的定义为身高体重Z评分高于美国国家卫生统计中心/世界卫生组织参考人群中位数的2.0个标准差。儿童肥胖患病率为10.8%（95%置信区间：7.6，13.9）。肥胖在男孩中的患病率明显高于女孩。在三种学校类型之间观察到最大差异，教师培训示范学校的肥胖患病率最高，而政府学校的患病率最低。本研究提供了泰国东北部儿童肥胖患病率的首个数据。10.8%的患病率低于泰国其他两个城市地区，但略高于这个相对贫困地区的预期。如果这种患病率像其他经济转型国家那样上升，与肥胖相关的非传染性疾病的发病率也可能增加，因此引发了人们的担忧，也为在儿童期控制和预防肥胖进行干预提供了理由。
