Differences in weight status and energy-balance related behaviors among schoolchildren in German-speaking Switzerland compared to seven countries in Europe

International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity

Research

Johannes Brug¹  Yannis Manios²  Alain Dössegger³  Urs Mäder³  Charlotte Braun-Fahrländer⁴  Bettina Bringolf-Isler⁴  Susi Kriemler⁴  Leticia Grize⁴  Tina Wunderlin⁴  Michael Herzig⁴ 

[1] Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands;Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Harokopio University, Athens, Greece;Swiss Federal Institute of Sport, Magglingen, Switzerland;Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel, Switzerland;University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland;

关键词: Schoolchildren;    Overweight;    Diet;    Physical activity;    Sedentary behavior;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1479-5868-9-139

 received in 2012-07-04, accepted in 2012-11-26,  发布年份 2012

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundOverweight in children and adolescents have increased significantly and are a major public health problem. To allow international comparisons, Switzerland joined the European study ‘ENERGY’ cross sectional survey consortium that investigated the prevalence of overweight and obesity as well as selected dietary, physical and sedentary behaviors of 10–12 years old pupils across seven other countries in Europe. The aims of the present study was to compare body composition and energy-balance related behaviors of Swiss schoolchildren to those of the seven European ENERGY-countries and to analyze overweight and energy-balance related behaviors of Swiss children according to socio-demographic factors.MethodsA school-based cross-sectional study among 10–12 year old children was conducted in Switzerland and seven other European countries using a standardized protocol. Body height, weight and waist-circumference were measured by trained research assistants. Energy-balance related behaviors –i.e. selected dietary, physical activity and screen-viewing behaviors were assessed by questionnaires. Weight status and behaviors in Switzerland were compared to the seven European ENERGY countries. Within the Swiss sample, analyses stratified by gender, parental education and ethnicity were performed.ResultsData of 546 Swiss children (mean age 11.6±0.8y, 48% girls) were obtained and compared to the ENERGY- results (N=7.148; mean age 11.5±0.8y, 48% girls). In Switzerland significantly less children were overweight (13.9%) or obese (2.3%) compared to the average across the ENERGY-countries (23.7% and 4.7%, respectively), and were even somewhat lower than the ENERGY countries with the lowest prevalence. Sugar sweetened beverage intakes and breakfast habits of Swiss children did not differ significantly from those of ENERGY. However, the mean time devoted by Swiss children to walking or cycling to school and attending sports activities was significantly higher and screen time significantly lower compared to the other ENERGY-countries. Within the Swiss, sample relatively large and consistent differences were observed between children from native and non-native ethnicity.ConclusionsThe prevalence of overweight and obesity among Swiss children are substantial but significantly lower compared to all other European ENERGY-Partners, probably due to the fact that Swiss children were found to be more active and less sedentary comparing to the rest of the European sample.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Herzig et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2012. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.