The prevalence of overweight, obesity and stunting in school children aged 6-19 years in Beijing, China

Background: Childhood/adolescent obesity and stunting are associated with heightened risk of metabolic syndrome. Understanding the prevalence and patterns of stunting, the emergence of overweight/obesity in children and adolescents and the concomitant risk for metabolic syndrome is of critical importance for public health policy.Aim: To investigate the prevalence of overweight, obesity and stunting in school children and adolescents aged 6-19 years in Beijing and to compare the differences in screening rates by national and international references.Subjects and methods: School children aged 6-19 years in Xuanwu, Haidian and Fangshan district were selected. Overweight and obesity in the children was screened for using the International Obesity Task-force (IOTF) and Chinese standards. Stunting was defined as height-for-age Z-score (HAZ) less than -2 using the 2009 Chinese standards and 2007 WHO reference.Results: A total of 99482 children were included in this survey. The prevalences of overweight and obesity are 17.7% and 14.4% in the Chinese standard, but they are 18.1% and 8.6% in the IOTF standard; there were significant differences between the prevalences of these two standards (p<0.01). The prevalences of overweight/obesity in boys are all significantly higher than that of girls in every age-group (p<0.05). Overall there was stunting in 2630 children and adolescents (2.6%) according to the Chinese standards, with 2.8% in boys, higher than the 2.5% of girls (p<0.01). According to WHO standards, there was stunting in 1201 children and adolescents (1.2%) with 1.1% in boys and 1.3% in girls (p<0.05). The prevalence of stunting in urban areas was 1.3%, which is significantly lower than that of suburban areas, at 3.9% (p<0.01).Conclusion: The prevalence of overweight/obesity in children and adolescents aged 6-19 years in Beijing was close to western countries, which should be highly valued when considering public health policies and the problem of growth stunting should not be ignored.