Overweight and Obesity in Portuguese Children: Prevalence and Correlates

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

Thayse Natacha Gomes²  Peter T. Katzmarzyk¹  Fernanda K. dos Santos²  Michele Souza²  Sara Pereira²  José A. R. Maia² 

[1] Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Louisiana State University, 6400 Perkins Rd., Baton Rouge, LA 70808, USA; E-Mail:;CIFI²D, Kinanthropometry Lab, Faculty of Sport, University of Porto, Rua Dr. Plácido Costa, 91, 4200-450 Porto, Portugal; E-Mails:

关键词: overweight;    obesity;    children;    school;    correlates;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ijerph111111398

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

There are widespread differences in overweight/obesity prevalence in children, and understanding the reasons for this is very important. The present study aims: (I) to conduct a meta-analysis on overweight/obesity prevalence in Portuguese children; (II) to identify differences in biological and behavioural characteristics between normal-weight and overweight/obese children; and (III) to investigate the importance of individual- and school-level correlates of variation in children’s BMI using multilevel modelling. A search was done for all published papers including Portuguese children during the last decade; further, 686 Portuguese children (9–11 years old) were sampled and their BMI, family income, maturity offset, nutritional habits, physical activity, sedentariness, sleep time, and school environment information were collected. Results showed a stabilization of overweight/obesity during the last decade, 30.6% (95%CI: 0.287–0.34) for boys, 28.4% (95%CI: 0.23–0.35) for girls, and 30.3% (95%CI: 0.27–0.34) for boys and girls together. Differences between weight groups were only found in individual-level biological traits. The multilevel analysis did not identify significant contributions of school-level variables to children’s BMI variation. In conclusion, no increase was found in the prevalence of overweight/obesity among Portuguese children since 2000. Normal-weight and overweight/obese children only differ in individual-level characteristics, and school context variables were not related to variation in BMI.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2014 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.