Secular trends in body mass index measurements in preschool children from the City of Aachen, Germany.

Unlabelled: On account of the recent increases in prevalence of childhood obesity in Western countries, the present study tried to verify a secular trend for increasing body mass index (BMI; kg/m(2)) in preschool children in Aachen, Germany. The total sample was based on weight and height data for all 99,500 children of German nationality before enrollment in school in the City of Aachen from 1968-1999. For each year, 10% of the boys and girls respectively, were randomly selected for the analyses.