Prevalence of overweight and obesity in children aged 6–13 years—alarming increase in obesity in Cracow, Poland

Abstract

This study in children aged 6–13 years ( n = 1,499) was performed between October 2008 and March 2009. Height and weight measurements were taken to calculate BMI. The prevalence of overweight and obesity was determined by means of IOTF cut-offs with respect to age. Alarming is the fact that the percentage of obese children in Cracow increased dramatically from 1.04% in boys and 0.20% in girls in 1971 to 7% in boys and 3.6% in girls in 2009. In this report, a higher percentage of overweight boys was observed in rural boys (28.14%) than in urban ones (27.31%). Obesity was identified in an almost twice as high percentage of urban boys (7.78%) as in rural ones (3.52%). A higher percentage of overweight girls was registered in rural areas (16.49%) than in urban ones (16.09%). Obesity was prevailing in rural girls (4.12%) relative to their urban counterparts (3.44%). The highest number of overweight urban boys was diagnosed in the group of 12-year-olds ( n = 48) and rural boys in the group of 10-year-olds ( n = 39), as well as in urban girls aged 11 ( n = 17) and rural girls aged 9 ( n = 9). The highest number of obesity was observed in rural boys aged 12 ( n = 3) and in urban boys aged 9 and 10 ( n = 9 in both groups). In the group of girls, obesity prevailed in urban 9-year-olds ( n = 5) and in rural 7-year-olds ( n = 5). Conclusions: Overweight and obesity affect boys almost twice as frequently as girls. Obesity is twice as frequent in urban boys as in their rural peers.