Global prevalence and trends of overweight and obesity among preschool children

Background Childhood obesity is associated with serious health problems and the risk of premature illness and death later in life Monitoring related trends is important Objective The objective was to quantify the worldwide prevalence and trends of overweight and obesity among preschool children on the basis of the new World Health Organization standards Design A total of 450 nationally representative cross-sectional surveys from 144 countries were analyzed Overweight and obesity were defined as the proportion of preschool children with values >2 SDs and >3 SDs respectively from the World Health Organization growth standard median Being at risk of overweight was defined as the proportion with values >1 SD and <= 2 SDs respectively Linear mixed-effects modeling was used to estimate the rates and numbers of affected children Results In 2010 43 milion children (35 million in developing countries) were estimated to be overweight and obese 92 million were at risk of overweight The worldwide prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity increased from 4 2% (95% CI 3 2% 5 2%) in 1990 to 67% (95% CI 5 6% 7 7%) in 2010 This trend is expected to reach 91% (95% CI 73% 10 9%) or approximate to 60 million in 2020 The estimated prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity in Africa in 2010 was 8 5% (95% CI 7 4% 9 5%) and is expected to leach 12 7% (95% CI 106% 14 8%) in 2020 The prevalence is lower in Asia than in Africa (4 9% in 2010) but the number of affected children (18 million) is higher in Asia Conclusions Childhood overweight and obesity have increased dramatically since 1990 These findings confirm the need for effective interventions starting as early as infancy to reverse anticipated trends Am J Clin Nutr 2010, 92 1257-64