Abstract
Background
Childhood obesity has become a major health problem in children under the age of 5 years. Providing reference standards would help paediatricians to detect and/or prevent health problems related to both low and high levels of body mass and to central adiposity later in life. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the prevalence of different weight status categories and to provide sex- and age-specific anthropometry reference standards for Spanish preschool children.
Methods
A total of 3178 preschool children (4.59±0.87 years old) participated in this study. Prevalence of different degrees of obesity (mild, severe, and morbid) and other weight status categories were determined.
Results
Reference standards were obtained. Prevalence of overweight and obese preschool children in the Spanish population ranged from 21.4 to 34.8%. Specifically, the obesity prevalence was 3.5, 1.2, and 1.3% of these subjects were categorized as mild, severe, and morbid obese. Sex- and age-specific reference standards for anthropometric parameters are provided for every 0.25 years (i.e. every trimester of life).
Conclusion
Our results show a high prevalence of overweight/obese preschoolers. The provided sex- and age-specific anthropometric reference standards could help paediatricians to track and monitor anthropometric changes at this early stage in order to prevent overweight/obesity.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the participation of the preschoolers, parents, and teachers in this study. We are grateful to Ms. Carmen Sainz-Quinn for assistance with the English language. This work is part of a Ph.D. Thesis conducted in the Biomedicine Doctoral Studies of the University of Granada, Spain. The PREFIT project takes place owing to the funding of the Ramón y Cajal grant held by FBO (RYC-2011-09011). C.C.-S. is supported by a grant from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (BES-2014-068829). E.G.A. and F.B.O. are supported by a grant from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (RYC-2014-16390 and RYC-2011-09011, respectively). C.A.-B., A.P.-B., and G.S.-D. are supported by the Spanish Ministry of Education (FPU13/03137, FPU15/05337, and FPU13/04365, respectively). Additional funding was obtained from the University of Granada, Plan Propio de Investigación 2016, Excellence actions: Units of Excellence; Unit of Excellence on Exercise and Health (UCEES) and by the Junta de Andalucia, Consejería de Conocimiento, Investigación y Universidades. In addition, funding was provided by the SAMID III network, RETICS, the PN I+D+I 2017-2021 (Spain), ISCIII-Sub-Directorate General for Research Assessment and Promotion, the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) (RD16/0022, SOMM17/6107/UGR), the EXERNET Research Network on Exercise and Health in Special Populations (DEP2005-00046/ACTI), the University of the Basque Country (GIU14/21), and the University of Zaragoza (JIUZ-2014-BIO-08).
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Substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data: C.C.-S., T.I., I.L., C.A.-B., J.S.-M., P.J.B., M.R.B.-V., A.P.-B., G.S.-D., P.P., G.V.-R., and F.B.O. Drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content: C.C.-S., T.I., I.L., C.A.-B., J.S.-M., P.J.B., M.R.B.-V., A.P.-B., G.S.-D., P.P., G.V.-R., L.A.M., and F.B.O. Final approval of the version to be published: C.C.-S., T.I., I.L., C.A.-B., J.S.-M., P.J.B., M.R.B.-V., A.P.-B., G.S.-D., P.P., G.V.-R., L.A.M., and F.B.O.
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Cadenas-Sanchez, C., Intemann, T., Labayen, I. et al. Prevalence of severe/morbid obesity and other weight status and anthropometric reference standards in Spanish preschool children: The PREFIT project. Pediatr Res 87, 501–510 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41390-019-0325-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41390-019-0325-8
