Incidence of overweight and obesity in children and adolescents in Germany

Results of a nation-wide children’s and adolescents’ health survey

Bärbel M. Kurth, A. Schaffrath-Rosario, Berlin

So far, there have been no age-specific data concerning the incidence of overweight and obesity in children and adolescents in Germany. Within the frame-work of a nation-wide children’s and adolescents’ health survey , height and weight of 14,747 children and adolescents between 3 and 17 years of age (7,530 boys and 7,217 girls) who particpated in the study were determined in a standardized procedure.

Overweight and obesity were defined according to the recommendations by the “Working group obesity in children and adolescents” on the basis of reference data of the distribution of the Body-Mass Index (BMI = bodyweight in kg/square of body height in m2) by KROMEYER-HAUSCHILD. Accordingly, 15 % of the children and adolescents between of 3–17 years have a BMI over the 90th percentile of the reference data and hence are overweight. In 6.3 % BMI is over the 97th percentile; these children and adolescents are obese.

Accordingly, there are nearly 2 million overweight children living in Germany, 800,000 of whom are obese. The proportion of overweigth and obese children and adolescents increases with increasing age. Clear differences between girls and boys or between the old (Western)and new (Eastern) Federal Länder have not been found. The risk of overweight and obesity is higher in children of lower social classes, in children whose families immigrated, and in children whose parents are overweight as well.

Keywords: children and adolescents, Body-Mass Index, BMI, health survey, obesity, overweight, social discrimination

Sie finden den Artikel in deutscher Sprache in Ernährungs Umschau 07/07 ab Seite 386.