Mavrakanas Thomas A, Konsoula Georgia, Patsonis Ioannis, Merkouris Bodossakis P
Nea Madytos Health Centre, Thessaloniki, Greece.
Rural Remote Health. 2009 Apr-Jun;9(2):1150. Epub 2009 Jun 25.
The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of childhood obesity and elevated blood pressure (BP) in a rural population of northern Greece.
In total, 572 schoolchildren between the age of 4 and 10 years were examined. Obesity was defined using three different standards: (1) body mass index (BMI) charts of the French society of Paediatrics (FR), selected because of the low cardiovascular risk profile and low prevalence of obesity in France; (2) United States BMI CDC charts (US), selected because of the high prevalence of childhood obesity in the USA; and the reference curves of the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF). Children with elevated BP were defined as BP > or = 95th percentile for age, gender and height, according to the Greek national charts.
The prevalence of obesity for boys was 13.6% (IOTF), 23.7% (US) and 31.7% (FR); for girls 14.4% (IOTF), 21.1% (US) and 35.1% (FR). The prevalence of elevated BP was 7.9% (45 children). It was 5 to 6 times more common for obese than non-obese children to have elevated BP (relative risk of 5.2 to 6.2 and odds ratio 6.3 to 7.7).
The results confirm the high prevalence of childhood obesity in Greece, in this study found to be more prevalent in rural than urban Greece. The IOTF criteria tend to underestimate obesity and may not be optimal for use in a primary clinical care setting where the approach is for health education and patient treatment, rather than purely epidemiological. The study also confirms a strong relationship between high BP and increased BMI.
本研究的目的是确定希腊北部农村地区儿童肥胖和高血压（BP）的患病率。
总共检查了572名4至10岁的学童。肥胖采用三种不同标准定义：（1）法国儿科学会的体重指数（BMI）图表（FR），因其在法国心血管风险较低且肥胖患病率较低而被选用；（2）美国疾病控制与预防中心（CDC）的BMI图表（US），因其在美国儿童肥胖患病率较高而被选用；以及国际肥胖特别工作组（IOTF）的参考曲线。根据希腊国家图表，血压升高的儿童被定义为血压高于或等于其年龄、性别和身高的第95百分位数。
男孩的肥胖患病率分别为13.6%（IOTF）、23.7%（US）和31.7%（FR）；女孩分别为14.4%（IOTF）、21.1%（US）和35.1%（FR）。血压升高的患病率为7.9%（45名儿童）。肥胖儿童血压升高的情况比非肥胖儿童普遍5至6倍（相对风险为5.2至6.2，优势比为6.3至7.7）。
结果证实希腊儿童肥胖患病率较高，本研究发现农村地区比希腊城市地区更为普遍。IOTF标准往往会低估肥胖情况，在以健康教育和患者治疗而非单纯流行病学为目的的初级临床护理环境中可能并非最佳选择。该研究还证实了高血压与BMI升高之间存在密切关系。
