Development and Tracking of Body Mass Index from Preschool Age into Adolescence in Rural South African Children: Ellisras Longitudinal Growth and Health Study

The purpose of this observational prospective cohort study was to investigate the development and tracking of body mass index (BMI) of Ellisras rural children from preschool age into late adolescence from the Ellisras Longitudinal Growth and Health Study. Heights and weights of children were measured according to the standard procedures recommended by the International Society for the Advancement of Kinanthropometry twice a year from 1996 to 2003. In total, 2,225 children—550 preschool and 1,675 primary school—aged 3-10 years (birth cohorts 1993 to 1986) were enrolled at baseline in 1996 and followed through out the eight-year periodic surveys. In 2003, 1,771 children—489 preschool and 1,282 primary school—were still in the study. The prevalence of overweight was significantly higher among girls (range 1.6-15.5%) compared to boys (range 0.3-4.9%) from age 9.1 years to 14.9 years. The prevalence of thinness (severe, moderate, and mild) ranged from 7.1% to 53.7% for preschool children and from 8.0% to 47.6% for primary school children. Both preschool and primary school children showed a significant association between the first measurements of BMI and the subsequent measurement which ranged from B=0.2 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.1-0.4) to B=0.8 (95% CI 0.6-0.9) for preschool and B=0.2 (95% CI 0.1-0.3) to B=0.7 (95% CI 0.6-0.8) for primary children. A significant tracking of BMI during 4-12 years of life was more consistent for preschool children (B=0.6 (95% CI 0.6-0.7) and for primary school children (B=0.6 (95%CI 0.5-0.6). Investigation of nutritional intake and physical activity patterns will shed light on how healthy these children are and their lifestyle

The relationship between body composition and physical fitness in 14 year old adolescents residing within the Tlokwe local municipality, South Africa: The PAHL study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Little is known about the relationship between body composition and physical fitness in 14 year-old high school adolescents of South Africa. Baseline data from a longitudinal study on physical activity and health (PAHLS) may provide valuable information for future studies, hence to inform public health policy makers. The objectives of this study are to determine the prevalence of underweight, normal weight and overweight among adolescents aged 14 years in the Tlokwe Local Municipality of the North West Province of South Africa, and to assess the association between physical fitness and body composition separately for boys and girls, adjusted for race and locality.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Body weight, height and triceps, and subscapular skinfolds of 256 adolescents (100 boys and 156 girls) aged 14 years were measured, and percentage body fat and body mass index (BMI) were calculated. BMI was used to determine underweight, normal weight and overweight based on the standard criterion. Physical fitness was assessed by standing broad jump, bent arm hang and sit-ups according to the EUROFIT fitness standard procedures. Multinomial logistic regression analyses stratified for gender and adjusted for race (black or white), and the locality (urban or township) of the schools were used to analyze the data.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In the total group 35.9% were underweight and 13.7% overweight. Boys were more underweight (44%) than girls (30.7%). The prevalence of overweight was 8% in boys and 17.3% in girls. BMI was strongly (p = 0.01) related with percentage body fat. Strong and significant positive associations between physical fitness and BMI for the underweight girls with high physical fitness scores (OR, 10.69 [95%CI: 2.81-40.73], and overweight girls with high physical fitness scores (OR, 0.11 [95%CI: 0.03-0.50]) were found. Non-significant weaker positive relationship between physical fitness and BMI for the underweight boys with high physical fitness scores (OR, 1.80 [95%CI: 0.63-5.09]), and the overweight boys with high physical fitness scores (OR, 0.18 [95%CI: 0.02-1.78]) were found.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Both underweight and overweight among boys and girls in Tlokwe Local Municipality exist, and their effects on physical fitness performances were also noticed. As such, strategic physical activity, interventions or follow-up studies recognizing this relationship particularly in the overweight adolescents are needed. In addition, authorities in health and education departments dealing with adolescents should make use of this evidence base information in policies development.</p

Development and Tracking of Body Mass Index from Preschool Age into Adolescence in Rural South African Children: Ellisras Longitudinal Growth and Health Study

The purpose of this observational prospective cohort study was to investigate the development and tracking of body mass index (BMI) of Ellisras rural children from preschool age into late adolescence from the Ellisras Longitudinal Growth and Health Study. Heights and weights of children were measured according to the standard procedures recommended by the International Society for the Advancement of Kinanthropometry twice a year from 1996 to 2003. In total, 2,225 children-550 preschool and 1,675 primary school-aged 3-10 years (birth cohorts 1993 to 1986) were enrolled at baseline in 1996 and followed through out the eight-year periodic surveys. In 2003, 1,771 children-489 preschool and 1,282 pri- mary school-were still in the study. The prevalence of overweight was significantly higher among girls (range 1.6-15.5%) compared to boys (range 0.3-4.9%) from age 9.1 years to 14.9 years. The prevalence of thinness (severe, moderate, and mild) ranged from 7.1% to 53.7% for preschool children and from 8.0% to 47.6% for primary school children. Both preschool and primary school children showed a significant association between the first measurements of BMI and the subsequent measurement which ranged from B=0.2 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.1-0.4) to B=0.8 (95% CI 0.6-0.9) for preschool and B=0.2 (95% CI 0.1-0.3) to B=0.7 (95% CI 0.6-0.8) for primary children. A significant tracking of BMI during 4-12 years of life was more consistent for preschool children (B=0.6 (95% CI 0.6-0.7) and for primary school children (B=0.6 (95%CI 0.5-0.6). Investigation of nutritional intake and physical activity patterns will shed light on how healthy these children are and their lifestyle

A century of trends in adult human height

Being taller is associated with enhanced longevity, and higher education and earnings. We reanalysed 1472 population-based studies, with measurement of height on more than 18.6 million participants to estimate mean height for people born between 1896 and 1996 in 200 countries. The largest gain in adult height over the past century has occurred in South Korean women and Iranian men, who became 20.2 cm (95% credible interval 17.5-22.7) and 16.5 cm (13.3-19.7) taller, respectively. In contrast, there was little change in adult height in some sub-Saharan African countries and in South Asia over the century of analysis. The tallest people over these 100 years are men born in the Netherlands in the last quarter of 20th century, whose average heights surpassed 182.5 cm, and the shortest were women born in Guatemala in 1896 (140.3 cm; 135.8-144.8). The height differential between the tallest and shortest populations was 19-20 cm a century ago, and has remained the same for women and increased for men a century later despite substantial changes in the ranking of countries

Rising rural body-mass index is the main driver of the global obesity epidemic in adults

Body-mass index (BMI) has increased steadily in most countries in parallel with a rise in the proportion of the population who live in cities 1,2 . This has led to a widely reported view that urbanization is one of the most important drivers of the global rise in obesity 3�6 . Here we use 2,009 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight in more than 112 million adults, to report national, regional and global trends in mean BMI segregated by place of residence (a rural or urban area) from 1985 to 2017. We show that, contrary to the dominant paradigm, more than 55 of the global rise in mean BMI from 1985 to 2017�and more than 80 in some low- and middle-income regions�was due to increases in BMI in rural areas. This large contribution stems from the fact that, with the exception of women in sub-Saharan Africa, BMI is increasing at the same rate or faster in rural areas than in cities in low- and middle-income regions. These trends have in turn resulted in a closing�and in some countries reversal�of the gap in BMI between urban and rural areas in low- and middle-income countries, especially for women. In high-income and industrialized countries, we noted a persistently higher rural BMI, especially for women. There is an urgent need for an integrated approach to rural nutrition that enhances financial and physical access to healthy foods, to avoid replacing the rural undernutrition disadvantage in poor countries with a more general malnutrition disadvantage that entails excessive consumption of low-quality calories. © 2019, The Author(s)

Relationship between physical activity and risk factors of body weight disorders among South African primary school children

Not much info on journal on Sherpa Romeo, nothing on the Masterfile. I am therefore not sure whether the PDF af the article can be uploaded or not.The study determined the relationship between physical activity (PA) and risk factors of obesity among primary school children (boys: mean age 11.17 ±1.29, n=678; girls: mean age 10.88±1.27, n=683) in Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces, South Africa. The children were classified according to age and sex-specific body mass index (BMI) categories (underweight: 0<18, normal weight: 18.530) and their blood pressure (BP) measurements. Health-related fitness was assessed with standardised test protocols. Using the International PA Questionnaire (IPAQ), the children’s PA levels were judged as: Low (METs scores of less than 500); Moderate (METs scores from 500 to 1499) or High (METs >1500). The children were mostly underweight (74%) compared to other weight categories (normal weight: 23.7%; overweight: 1.0%; obese: 0.6%). Girls had non-significant elevated BP values (systolic: 112.94±11.28mmHg; diastolic: 79.40±12.80mmHg) than boys (systolic: 110.71±14.95mmHg; diastolic: 75.53±12.53mmHg) who had higher PA levels (METs = 1286.72±317.47) than girls (METs = 397.28±30.14) (p<0.01). The children’s PA level correlated positively with BMI (.86) (p<0.01) but negatively with %BF (-.67); weight circumference (WC) (-.41); SUP (sit-up) (-.22); and predicted VO2 max (-.17) (p<0.05). BMI positively associated with SBP (standing broad jump) (.06) and SAR (sit-and-reach) (.16) (p<01) whereas, it was negatively related with DBP (-.15); %BF (-.67); WC (-.26); SUP (-.21) and predicted VO2 max (-.12) (p<0.05). Understanding the relationship between body composition, PA and non-communicable disease risk among children could provide a reliable basis for designing appropriate intervention programmes needed to optimise health outcomes

Physical activity, body composition and physical fitness status of primary school children in Mpumalanga and Limpopo provinces of South Africa

This study was designed to assess the physical activity (PA), body composition and physical fitness status of 1361 (boys: n=678; girls: n= 683) primary school children aged 9-12 years in Mpumalanga (MP) and Limpopo (LP) provinces of South Africa. Anthropometric and physical fitness measurements were taken using the protocol of the International Society for the Advancement of Kinanthropometry (ISAK) (Marfell-Jones, Old, Steward & Carter, 2006) and EUROFIT (1988) test battery. Body composition was estimated by calculating body mass index (BMI) (weight/height2) and wait-to-hip ratio, respectively. BMI for age and gender was used to classify the children as underweight, overweight or obese (Cole et al., 2007), whilst percentage body fat (%BF) indicated adiposity. The %BF was calculated from sum of two skinfolds (triceps and subscapular) using Slaughter et al.'s (1988) equation to predict body fat. The results showed that 75% of the children were underweight/stunted and 1.6% overweight. Frequencies of underweight, normal weight and overweight were 77%, 22.4% and 0.2% in MP and 72%, 24% and 3% in LP province. Boys in both provinces were taller and heavier than the girls. With regard to health-related physical fitness, at age 10 the MP boys performed significantly (p=0.05) better in sit-up (SUP: 20.5 ±5.430) than the LP boys (18.6±6.56). The LP boys did significantly better than the MP boys in sit and reach (SAR) at ages 10 and 11. The MP boys significantly (p=0.00) performed better in SBJ (121.6±910cm) as compared to the Limpopo (118.4±11.00cm) ones at age 9. Generally, LP boys did significantly (p=0.00) better than the MP across all ages. With regards to PA, the results showed that 27.7% (377), 58.5% (796) and 13.8% (188) of the children participate in low, moderate and high PA, respectively. Children in MP province had high PA (28.6%) as compared to the low PA participation in LP children (26.7%). Furthermore, 59.7% of MP children as compared to the LP children (57.3%) participated in moderate PA. A higher PA participation rate of 15.8% was found in the LP children than those in MP province (11.6%). It is important to periodically evaluate PA levels in South African children in order to alleviate increasing concerns over the potential health crises associated with underweight and low levels of PA status in the children