Prevalence of overweight and obesity among primary school children aged 5 to 14 years in Wannan area, China.

Background: Overweight and obesity are epidemic worldwide. The purpose of this research is to estimate whether the prevalence of obesity among primary school children is high, and to identify its potential determinants to optimize the methods of prevention to combat further increases in childhood overweight.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was designed to collect the routine health screening data for primary school children in Wannan area, China. Overweight and obesity status were determined using the International Obesity Task Force standard (IOTF) BMI cut-off points.

Results: A total of 67956 subjects (36664 male and 31292 female) aged 5-14 years were recruited in this study. Depending on the references used (IOTF), the overall prevalence of overweight, including obesity of the subjects was 17.85% , the prevalence of overweight, including obesity was 22.9% in male subjects and 11.9% in female subjects, respectively. The overall prevalence of obesity was3.7%, the prevalence of obesity was 5.2 % in male subjects and 1.8% in female subjects, respectively. An interesting observation made was that the prevalence of overweight was high in male subjects.

Conclusions: Overweight is prevalence among primary school children, especially in male children. The relate department of school and government should take some measure to reduce the prevalence of overweight and obesity.