Prevalence of overweight and obesity among schoolchildren in Shenzhen city

ObjectiveTo examine the status of overweight and obesity among schoolchildren in Shenzhen city and to provide references for improving health status of the children.MethodsTotally 65 305 students from primary,junior or senior high schools in Shenzhen city were selected with stratified cluster sampling method.Height and weight of the students were measured.Body mass index(BMI)was used to assess the status of overweight and obesity among the students in different living area,age,sex,and type of schools.ResultsThe prevalence of overweight and obesity among the schoolchildren were 13.29% and 9.03%;the prevalence of overweight and obesity among the boys were 15.97% and 11.58% and those among the girls were 9.90% and 5.80%.The prevalence of overweight among the students from primary,junior,and senior high schools were 14.26%,13.33%,and 11.34%,and the prevalence of obesity were 12.27%,6.78%,and 4.85%,respectively.The prevalence of overweight and obesity were higher among the students in primary schools than those in junior high schools.The prevalence of overweight and obesity among the students in senior high schools were the lowest.The prevalence of overweight and obesity among students inside juncture schools were 14.19% and 10.15%,and those among the students outside juncture schools was 12.34% and 7.85%.The students from the schools inside the special economic zone had higher prevalence of overweight and obesity than those from the schools outside the zone.All the differences in the prevalence of overweight and obesity among the students of different groups were statistically significant(P<0.01 for all).ConclusionThe prevalence of overweight and obesity among schoolchildren,especially among school boys and primary schoolchildren,in Shenzhen city should be concerned.