Prevalence of obesity in elementary schoolchildren living in Northeast Attica, Greece.

OBJECTIVE

To assess the prevalence of obesity and obesity trend in schoolchildren living in Northeast Attica, Greece.

RESEARCH METHODS AND PROCEDURES

Mean (standard deviation) and median weight and BMI were calculated in 4131 (2054 boys and 2077 girls) 6- to 11-year-old Greek schoolchildren living in Northeast Attica between November 2003 and April 2004. Two hundred thirty-six (95 boys, 141 girls) immigrant children also participated in the study. The secular trend for obesity was determined comparing our data with those of a similar study performed in 1994.

RESULTS

Of boys, 27.8% were overweight, and 12.3% were obese. For girls, the corresponding values were 26.5% for overweight and 9.9% for obesity. There was an increase in the prevalence of overweight and obesity in the last 10 years in both sexes. For boys, overweight increased by 4.2% and obesity by 2.9%, whereas, for girls, overweight increased by 3.8% and obesity by 1.6%. Overweight and obesity were less prevalent in the immigrant children compared with their Greek peers. For immigrant boys, overweight was 15.9% and obesity was 7.9%, and for immigrant girls, overweight was 15.2% and obesity was 8.7%.

DISCUSSION

Greek schoolchildren living in Northeast Attica present a high prevalence of overweight and obesity and a positive secular change in the prevalence of obesity.