Department of Epidemiology and Health Monitoring of the Robert Koch Institute, Berlin.
Dtsch Arztebl Int. 2022 Dec 9;119(49):839-845. doi: 10.3238/arztebl.m2022.0326.
Overweight and obesity in early life increase the risk of chronic disease and ill health later on. We studied secular trends in the prevalence of overweight and obesity among young people in Germany, with consideration of socioeconomic status (SES).
We used repeated cross-sectional data from 3- to 17-year-olds from the German Health Interview and Examination Survey for Children and Adolescents (KiGGS). Overweight and obesity were defined according to the body mass index, based on measured height and weight from the KiGGS baseline survey (2003-2006) and the KiGGS second wave (2014-2017). SES was assessed with a composite index of parental education, occupation, and income.
In both study periods, the prevalence of overweight and obesity was highest among girls and boys from families of low SES. In the group with lowest SES, the prevalence of overweight rose from 20.0% in 2003-2006 (95% CI [18.0; 22.1]) to 25.5% [20.5; 31.2] in 2014-2017 (p = 0.043). Thus, social differences in the prevalence of overweight increased over time. No such trend was found for the prevalence of obesity.
Social differences in the prevalence of overweight among children and adolescents increased from the early 2000s to the mid-2010s. Structural measures are needed to help prevent overweight among young people in socially disadvantaged circumstances.
生命早期的超重和肥胖会增加日后罹患慢性病和健康不良的风险。我们研究了德国年轻人超重和肥胖流行率的长期变化趋势，并考虑了社会经济地位（SES）的影响。
我们使用了来自德国儿童和青少年健康访谈和体检调查（KiGGS）的 3 至 17 岁儿童的重复横断面数据。超重和肥胖根据体重指数定义，基于 KiGGS 基线调查（2003-2006 年）和 KiGGS 第二波调查（2014-2017 年）中测量的身高和体重。SES 采用父母教育程度、职业和收入的综合指数进行评估。
在两个研究期间，SES 较低家庭的女孩和男孩超重和肥胖的流行率均最高。在 SES 最低的群体中，超重的流行率从 2003-2006 年的 20.0%（95%CI [18.0; 22.1]）上升到 2014-2017 年的 25.5%（[20.5; 31.2]）（p = 0.043）。因此，超重的流行率在社会群体之间的差异随时间增加。肥胖流行率则没有这种趋势。
从 21 世纪初到 21 世纪 10 年代中期，儿童和青少年超重的流行率在社会群体之间的差异有所增加。需要采取结构性措施，帮助预防社会劣势青年超重。
