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      Waist Circumference and Healthy Lifestyle Preferences/Knowledge Monitoring in a Preschool Obesity Prevention Program

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          Abstract

          Weight and body mass index (BMI) changes appear to be poor measures for assessing the success of most pediatric obesity prevention programs (POPP). The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the preschool-age prevention program (3P) in improving and maintaining overtime preschoolers’ knowledge/preferences about healthy nutrition and physical activity (PA), and the relationship between acquired healthy behaviors and anthropometrics including waist circumference (WC). Twenty-five preschoolers underwent a 24-month healthy lifestyle multi-component pilot intervention followed by a one-year wash-out period; 25 age-matched served as controls. Anthropometric/behavioral data were monitored. After the 2-year study and wash-out, the rates of children overweight and with obesity decreased only in the intervention group, where, also, normal-weight children with visceral obesity attained WC normal values ( p = 0.048). While mean values of BMI Z-scores remained unchanged in both the intervention and control groups, WC (values and percentiles) showed a significant reduction only in the intervention group. Children’s adherence to the Mediterranean diet remained acceptable among the entire sample. Although daily sweet beverage consumption remained unchanged in both groups, knowledge/preferences improved significantly more in the intervention group. In conclusion, WC may be more sensitive than BMI for monitoring preschoolers in POPP and reflects healthy behavioral changes acquired during the intervention.

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          Waist circumference percentiles in nationally representative samples of African-American, European-American, and Mexican-American children and adolescents.

          To describe and provide estimates of the distribution of waist circumference (WC) according to percentiles in African-, European-, and Mexican-American children, and to test for group differences at different percentiles. Cross-sectional data from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III) were examined. The sample evaluated included 9713 nonpregnant persons 2 to 18 years of age with measured values of WCs. Age-, sex-, and ethnicity-specific percentiles were estimated via percentile regression. WC measurements increased in a monotonic fashion across ages but at nonconstant rates and in a manner that varied across age and sex. At higher percentiles of the distribution, estimates of WC differ between Mexican-American (MA) and European-American (EA) and between African-American (AA) and European-American (EA), and, in some cases, exceeded the adult cutoff value for obesity-related disease risk at as early as 13 years of age. Age-, sex-, and ethnicity-specific WC percentiles are available for US children and adolescents and can be used as an assessment tool that could impact public health recommendations. Results suggest concern with respect to high WC values among certain ethnic groups.
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            Prevalence of overweight and obesity in European children below the age of 10.

            There is a lack of common surveillance systems providing comparable figures and temporal trends of the prevalence of overweight (OW), obesity and related risk factors among European preschool and school children. Comparability of available data is limited in terms of sampling design, methodological approaches and quality assurance. The IDEFICS (Identification and prevention of Dietary- and lifestyle-induced health Effects in Children and infantS) study provides one of the largest European data sets of young children based on state-of-the-art methodology. To assess the European distribution of weight status according to different classification systems based on body mass index (BMI) in children (2.0-9.9 years). To describe the prevalence of weight categories by region, sex, age and socioeconomic position. Between 2007 and 2010, 18,745 children from eight European countries participated in an extensive, highly standardised protocol including, among other measures, anthropometric examinations and parental reports on socio-demographic characteristics. The combined prevalence of OW/obesity ranges from more than 40% in southern Europe to less than 10% in northern Europe. Overall, the prevalence of OW was higher in girls (21.1%) as compared with boys (18.6%). The prevalence of OW shows a negative gradient with social position, with some variation of the strength and consistency of this association across Europe. Overall, population groups with low income and/or lower education levels show the highest prevalence of obesity. The use of different reference systems to classify OW results in substantial differences in prevalence estimates and can even reverse the reported difference between boys and girls. There is a higher prevalence of obesity in populations from southern Europe and in population groups with lower education and income levels. Our data confirm the need to develop and reinforce European public health policies to prevent early obesity and to reduce these health inequalities and regional disparities.
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              Childhood obesity: prevention is better than cure

              Obesity and its associated comorbidities have emerged as a major health problem garnering interests from both public health agencies and mainstream media consumers. With increasing awareness on its impact on health, finances, and community at large, it has come to the forefront for scientific research and development of health plans. The need for better strategies and novel interventions to manage obesity is now being recognized by the entire health care system. Obesity and overweight is now the fifth leading global risk factor for mortality. Strategic investment is thus urgently needed to implement population-based childhood obesity prevention programmes which are effective and also culturally appropriate. Population-based prevention is crucial to stem this rising tide of childhood obesity which is fast reaching epidemic proportions. Obesity has its onset very early in life; therefore, children constitute a major group of this disease. It is thus imperative to lay utmost importance on prevention of obesity in children and herald its progress, if present already. Furthermore, treatment is still in preliminary stage, so early prevention holds better than treatment at later stages. This article is an attempt to lay emphasis on childhood obesity as a problem that needs to be recognized early and measures for its prevention.
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                Author and article information

                Journal
                Nutrients
                Nutrients
                nutrients
                Nutrients
                MDPI
                2072-6643
                07 September 2019
                September 2019
                : 11
                : 9
                : 2139
                Affiliations
                Pediatrics, Department of Medicine, Surgery and Dentistry “Scuola Medica Salernitana”, University of Salerno, 84081 Baronissi, Salerno, Italy (M.P.) (R.L.) (D.D.S.) (G.M.) (N.T.) (L.P.) (A.P.D.B.) (L.D.M.) (S.G.N.)
                Author notes
                [* ]Correspondence: pvajro@ 123456unisa.it ; Tel.: +39-339-236-1008; Fax: +39-089-672-409
                [†]

                The two authors contributed equally to the article.

                Author information
                https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7515-1394
                https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9418-5880
                Article
                nutrients-11-02139
                10.3390/nu11092139
                6769722
                31500234
                d26289d3-29bd-48d9-afd1-9a04227a6826
                © 2019 by the authors.

                Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

                History
                : 22 August 2019
                : 04 September 2019
                Categories
                Article

                Nutrition & Dietetics
                children,food knowledge,food preferences,healthy program,obesity,overweight,physical activity,preschoolers,prevention,waist circumference

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