Increase in Prevalence of Overweight in Dutch Children and Adolescents: A Comparison of Nationwide Growth Studies in 1980, 1997 and 2009

To assess the prevalence of overweight and obesity among Dutch children and adolescents, to examine the 30-years trend, and to create new body mass index reference charts. Design: Nationwide cross-sectional data collection by trained health care professionals. Participants: 10,129 children of Dutch origin aged 0-21 years. Main Outcome Measures: Overweight (including obesity) and obesity prevalences for Dutch children, defined by the cut-off values on body mass index references according to the International Obesity Task Force. Results: In 2009, 12.8% of the Dutch boys and 14.8% of the Dutch girls aged 2-21 years were overweight and 1.8% of the boys and 2.2% of the girls were classified as obese. This is a two to three fold higher prevalence in overweight and four to six fold increase in obesity since 1980. Since 1997, a substantial rise took place, especially in obesity, which increased 1.4 times in girls and doubled in boys. There was no increase in mean BMI SDS in the major cities since 1997. Conclusions: Overweight and obesity prevalences in 2009 were substantially higher than in 1980 and 1997. However, the overweight prevalence stabilized in the major cities. This might be an indication that the rising trend in overweight in the Netherlands is starting to turn. © 2011 Schönbeck et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

70-річчя члена-кореспондента НАН України В.П. Моторного

28 липня виповнилося 70 років видатному математику членові-кореспондентові НАН України Віталію Павловичу Моторному

Is mid-upper arm circumference in Dutch children useful in identifying obesity?

Background Mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) is suggested as being a valid measure in detecting overweight/obesity in children and adolescents, due to the strong relation with weight. We examined this relation and compared MUAC to body mass index (BMI) according to the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) in children. Methods Anthropometric data including MUAC were collected in 2009 by trained healthcare professionals in the context of the fifth Dutch Nationwide Growth Study, in a sample of 6167 children (2891 boys and 3276 girls) aged 2-18 years of Dutch origin. We propose MUAC SDS cut-off values for overweight and obesity, and compared MUAC with BMI IOTF in sex-specific and age-specific categories (2-5, 6-11, 12-18 years). Results The area under the curve is used as a measure of diagnostic accuracy; the explained variance (R) is good to excellent (0.88-0.94). Sensitivity ranges from 51.8% to 95.3% and specificity from 71.4% to 93.8%. Across age and gender groups, 65.1% to 89.0% participants are classified by both MUAC and BMI as normal weight, overweight or obese. We constructed three equations to predict weight using MUAC, with small differences between observed and predicted weight with an explained variance ranging from 0.88 to 0.94. Conclusions Compared with BMI, MUAC is a valid measure for detecting overweight and obesity and thus a good alternative for BMI. When weight has to be estimated, it can be accurately predicted using MUAC. Based on our observations, we recommend developing diagrams with international (IOTF) cut-offs for MUAC SDS similar to BMI

Is mid-upper arm circumference in Dutch children useful in identifying obesity?

Background Mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) is suggested as being a valid measure in detecting overweight/obesity in children and adolescents, due to the strong relation with weight. We examined this relation and compared MUAC to body mass index (BMI) according to the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) in children. Methods Anthropometric data including MUAC were collected in 2009 by trained healthcare professionals in the context of the fifth Dutch Nationwide Growth Study, in a sample of 6167 children (2891 boys and 3276 girls) aged 2-18 years of Dutch origin. We propose MUAC SDS cut-off values for overweight and obesity, and compared MUAC with BMI IOTF in sex-specific and age-specific categories (2-5, 6-11, 12-18 years). Results The area under the curve is used as a measure of diagnostic accuracy; the explained variance (R) is good to excellent (0.88-0.94). Sensitivity ranges from 51.8% to 95.3% and specificity from 71.4% to 93.8%. Across age and gender groups, 65.1% to 89.0% participants are classified by both MUAC and BMI as normal weight, overweight or obese. We constructed three equations to predict weight using MUAC, with small differences between observed and predicted weight with an explained variance ranging from 0.88 to 0.94. Conclusions Compared with BMI, MUAC is a valid measure for detecting overweight and obesity and thus a good alternative for BMI. When weight has to be estimated, it can be accurately predicted using MUAC. Based on our observations, we recommend developing diagrams with international (IOTF) cut-offs for MUAC SDS similar to BMI

Is mid-upper arm circumference in Dutch children useful in identifying obesity?

Background Mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) is suggested as being a valid measure in detecting overweight/obesity in children and adolescents, due to the strong relation with weight. We examined this relation and compared MUAC to body mass index (BMI) according to the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) in children. Methods Anthropometric data including MUAC were collected in 2009 by trained healthcare professionals in the context of the fifth Dutch Nationwide Growth Study, in a sample of 6167 children (2891 boys and 3276 girls) aged 2-18 years of Dutch origin. We propose MUAC SDS cut-off values for overweight and obesity, and compared MUAC with BMI IOTF in sex-specific and age-specific categories (2-5, 6-11, 12-18 years). Results The area under the curve is used as a measure of diagnostic accuracy; the explained variance (R) is good to excellent (0.88-0.94). Sensitivity ranges from 51.8% to 95.3% and specificity from 71.4% to 93.8%. Across age and gender groups, 65.1% to 89.0% participants are classified by both MUAC and BMI as normal weight, overweight or obese. We constructed three equations to predict weight using MUAC, with small differences between observed and predicted weight with an explained variance ranging from 0.88 to 0.94. Conclusions Compared with BMI, MUAC is a valid measure for detecting overweight and obesity and thus a good alternative for BMI. When weight has to be estimated, it can be accurately predicted using MUAC. Based on our observations, we recommend developing diagrams with international (IOTF) cut-offs for MUAC SDS similar to BMI

The five Dutch Growth Studies 1955–2009 and their number of participants.

<p>The five Dutch Growth Studies 1955–2009 and their number of participants.</p

Trends in proportion of menarche in girls from Dutch, Turkish and Moroccan origin between 1997 and 2009.

<p>Trends in proportion of menarche in girls from Dutch, Turkish and Moroccan origin between 1997 and 2009.</p

Mean (SD) BMI SDS (according to 1997 references) [49] for premenarcheal (pre-) and postmenarcheal (post-) Dutch girls by age in the 1980, 1997 and 2009 Growth Studies.

<p>Δ = delta: is the difference between mean BMI SDS in premenarcheal and postmenarcheal girls for that age group.</p

Mean BMI SDS for Dutch premenarcheal and postmenarcheal girls by age in the growth studies in 1980, 1997 and 2009.

<p>Mean BMI SDS for Dutch premenarcheal and postmenarcheal girls by age in the growth studies in 1980, 1997 and 2009.</p

Trends in distribution of age at menarche for the three ethnicities in the Netherlands.

<p>We generated 95% confidence intervals for the P10, P50 and P90 in the final models using the bootstrap percentile method based on 1000 replications. The functions boot() and boot.ci() in R were used.</p><p>Du = Dutch girls; Tu = Turkish girls; Mo = Moroccan girls.</p