Prevalence of overweight and obesity and anthropometric reference centiles for Albanian children and adolescents living in four Balkan nation-states.

Background The extent of the obesity epidemic among youth is an important public health statistic which provides an indication of the future burden of non-communicable diseases. Many developing countries, including Albania, do not have systematic and repeated monitoring systems in operation. Methods The Balkan Survey of Inactivity in Children study is a population-based cross-sectional survey including Albanian children living in the four Balkan nation-states of Albania, Kosovo, FYR Macedonia and Montenegro.

Effects of two physical education programmes on health- and skill-related physical fitness of Albanian children.

This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of two school-based physical education (PE) programmes (exercise-based and games-based) compared with traditional PE, on health- and skill-related physical fitness components in children in Tirana, Albania. Participants were 378 first-grade (6.8 years) and 389 fourth-grade (9.