[Obesity prevalence and tracking of body mass index after a 6 years follow up study in children and adolescents: the Cuenca Study, Spain].

Background: The goals of this study were to estimate the prevalence of overweight and obesity in schoolchildren of Cuenca a Spanish city, and to track down both conditions over 6 years.

Method: The follow-up study of cardiovascular risk factors began in 1992 with a cross-sectional survey of 307 children aged 9-12 years old who were recruited in three public schools. On a second survey in 1998, we examined schoolchildren of the 1992 cohort as well as 9-13 years-old schoolchildren from the same public schools.