The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) references were used to analyse anthropometric data from the 1999 National Food Consumption Survey (NFCS) of South Africa. Since then, however, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) 2000 reference and the World Health Organization (WHO) 2006 standards were released. It was ...

To understand Latina mothers' definitions of health and obesity in their children and perceptions of physician weight assessments. 24 low-income Spanish speaking Mexican mothers of children ages 2-5 years were recruited to participate in 4 focus groups. Half of the mothers had overweight or obese children and half had healthy weight ...

Nonasthmatic subjects with allergic rhinitis often have bronchial hyperresponsiveness (BHR), characteristic of asthma. The presence and degree of atopy is suggested to be important for BHR in patients with asthma. We aimed to assess BHR to methacholine (direct stimulus) and to adenosine 5'-monophosphate (AMP; indirect stimulus) in preschool children with ...

Much of the research examining the patterns, timing, and socioeconomic characteristics of child overweight has been limited by the lack of longitudinal nationally representative data with sufficiently large or diverse samples. We used the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K), a nationally representative sample of US kindergartners, to identify three ...

Background:  Over the last three decades the prevalence of overweight and obesity has increased dramatically among children and adolescents worldwide. As the results of animal and human studies suggest that a diet rich in fructose may be a risk factor for the development of overweight, the aim of the pilot ...

The objective of this study was to analyse interventions for the prevention of overweight and obesity in children under 5 years of age. We carried out a systematic review focusing exclusively on randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Data sources include Medline, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, CINHAL, PsychInfo and Web of Science. Data ...

Obesity is difficult to reverse in older children and adults and calls have been made to implement obesity prevention strategies during the formative pre-school years. Childhood obesity experts suggest that prevention of overweight in the pre-school years should focus on parents, because parental beliefs, attitudes, perceptions and behaviours appear to ...

BACKGROUND: Two recent studies reported a curvilinear (U-shaped) between elderly suicide rates and educational attainment measured by the United Nation's Education Index. A study examining the curvilinear (U-shaped) relationship between elderly suicide rates and the individual components of the Education Index (adult literacy rate, percentage of children of relevant age ...

Background:  Most studies regarding the association of obesity with asthma have been performed in the Western countries. This study is a nationwide survey conducted in Japan. Methods:  A cross-sectional and questionnaire-based survey was performed among children aged 6-7, 13-14, and 16-17 years, using the ISAAC questionnaire. Overweight was defined as ...

Two international datasets are used to define overweight and obesity in pre-school children: the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) reference and the WHO standard. This study compares the performance of the two datasets in defining overweight and obesity in 24-60 months old children. This was done by plotting the IOTF ...

Overweight and obesity in pre-school children are an increasing problem, with poor diet and exercise habits laying the foundation for serious health risks in later life. Yet most research into childhood obesity has focused on school-age children. Two previous systematic reviews of pre-school children have included uncontrolled designs and self-report ...

To assess the significance of consecutive six-minute walk tests (6MWTs) during a weight reduction program. Overweight children and adolescents (n = 113; mean ± standard deviation age, 12.9 ± 2.0 years; 64 girls) performed a standardized 6MWT at the beginning and end of an in-patient weight reduction program consisting of ...

Background:  An adverse pattern of blood lipids and atherosclerosis begin in childhood. Unfortunately, data for children and adolescents, particularly those in the Indian population, are scarce. The present study aims to evaluate the levels of serum E-selectin in Indian children and adolescents and its correlation with anthropometric and biochemical parameters. ...

As childhood obesity is associated with premature death in adults, a research is critical. This review focuses on the recent proceedings concerning genesis, prevention, and treatment. Identifying genetic variants in well phenotyped small cohorts of extremely obese children (e.g., the search for copy number variants in obesity-associated large chromosomal deletions) ...

The prevalence of childhood obesity is high among young children of Mexican origin in the United States, however, the determinants are poorly understood. We conducted a binational study with a sample from California (CA) and Mexico (MX), to identify and compare the most important factors associated with overweight and obesity ...

Abstract The endogenous secretory receptor for advanced glycation end products (esRAGE) and soluble RAGE (sRAGE) have been shown in human plasma and have emerged as reliable biomarkers of several pathological conditions, including insulin resistance and liver injury. We examined esRAGE and sRAGE levels in obese prepubertal children with and without ...

Obesity is a rapidly expanding health problem in children and adolescents and is the most prevalent nutritional problem for children in the United States. Some believe that obesity has become a major epidemic in American children, with the prevalence having more than doubled since 1980. This epidemic has led to ...

To evaluate associations between anthropometrics and metabolic variables as well as cardiovascular risk factors among children. Subjects were recruited from a cohort of 274 healthy children in Umeå, Sweden. Anthropometric measures, blood pressure and venous blood samples were collected at age 10 years and simultaneously from parents. Altogether 144 children ...

childhood obesity is a risk factor for many perioperative complications. Hypotension is a well described complication of general anaesthesia in both adults and children. This observational study compared the incidence of preincision hypotension (PIH) between children with high BMI and lean controls. children aged 2-17 years undergoing noncardiac procedures were ...

To provide neck circumference (NC) percentiles and mean values for Turkish children and to investigate their significance in clinical and epidemiological use. Data were obtained from a cross-sectional screening study; DAMTCA II (Determination of Anthropometric Measurements in Turkish Children and Adolescents) in which 5481 subjects from 17 primary, secondary and ...

Inflammatory marker levels have long been associated with obesity status in adult populations, but relevant data are scarce in children, especially in diverse races. The aim of this study was thus to examine the association between overall and central obesity and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels in Cypriot children of Greek ...

The objective of the present study was to determine relationship between cardiorespiratory fitness and body fatness in both nonoverweight and overweight 8-year-old school children. The study participants were a 245 healthy second-grade elementary school children aged 8.9±0.4 yrs (125 boys, 120 girls). Anthropometric data (height, body mass, waist circumference, five ...

Circulating oxidized low-density lipoprotein (LDL), a marker of oxidative stress, is associated with obesity, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, and cardiovascular disease in adults. However, little is known about its relation to insulin resistance and cardiovascular risk factors in children. The purpose of this study was to assess the relation of ...

Severe or extreme obesity in children and adolescents is a progressive damaging disease, increasingly requiring surgical treatment. Timing and choice of operation are controversial. In the last 16 years, we performed open biliopancreatic diversion with duodenal switch (DS) in 13 adolescents aged 15-17 years, who have been followed up for ...

Developmental coordination disorder (DCD) is a neuro-developmental disorder characterized by poor fine and/or gross motor coordination. Children with DCD are hypothesized to be at increased risk for overweight and obesity from inactivity due to their motor coordination problems. Although previous studies have found evidence to support this hypothesis, their reliance ...

Objective:  Obese children present with various cardiovascular risk factors affecting their future health. In adults, cardiac autonomic function is a major risk factor, predicting cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. We hypothesized that obese children and adolescents had a lower cardiac vagal activity than lean subjects. We measured cardiac spontaneous baroreflex sensitivity ...

The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of obesity among schoolchildren in Khartoum state, Sudan. Multistage stratified random sampling methodology was used. Sampling included different residential areas within the state. A total of 1138 children between the ages of 10 and 18 years were involved in the ...

Childhood obesity, often characterized by a chronic low-grade inflammation, has been associated with an increased risk of developing some types of cancer later in life. Nuclear γ-H2AX foci represent the first detectable response of cells to DNA tumorigenesis lesions, such as the double-strand breaks (DSBs). An excess of micronucleated peripheral ...

Genome-wide association studies have shown that the melatonin receptor 1B (MTNR1B) gene locus is strongly associated with fasting glucose and β-cell function. However, data are rather limited to the adult population and normal-weight children. So far, little is known whether similar associations are present in overweight and obese children and ...

Obesity is increasing worldwide, reaching alarming proportions. Eating habits have changed over time and nowadays children and adolescents' environment favours the adoption of unhealthy eating behaviours leading to metabolic impairment. To explore the impact of eating risk factors and their cumulative effect on anthropometric characteristics in French primary school children. ...

In February 2010, President Obama created the Child Obesity Task Force to address the problem that nearly one in three children in the United States are overweight or obese. In May, the Task Force released its action plan, the goal of which is to return to the obesity rate of ...

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has been consistently found to be associated with features of the metabolic syndrome (MS), a condition carrying a high risk of cardiovascular events. The present study aimed to determine whether, in children and adolescents, NAFLD is atherogenic beyond its association with MS and its components. ...

To compare the differential efficacy of a weight loss program for Mexican-American children who are overweight, obese, and severely obese. Study participants were enrolled in an intensive weight loss intervention aimed at improving eating and physical activity behaviors with behavior modification strategies. Participants included 212 children (45% female) between the ...

The cutoffs from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) growth charts and from the Cooper Institute (FitnessGram) are widely used to identify children who have a high body mass index (BMI). We compared the abilities of these 2 systems to identify children who have adverse lipid concentrations and ...

Hispanic children suffer from the highest overall rates of prevalence for overweight and obesity in the US. In the last decade some interventions for prevention of childhood obesity have been developed and tailored to target this subgroup. The purpose of this review is to systematically analyze and summarize findings for ...

Abstract Objective. The purpose of this study was to investigate differences in gross motor coordination in healthy-weight, overweight, and obese children of different ages. Methods. Using a cross-sectional design, data were collected in 954 Flemish primary school children (500 girls, 454 boys) stratified in consecutive age groups (5-7 years, 8-9 ...

Aims:  To compare the parental perception of overweight and underweight in their children to objective criteria, based on body mass index (BMI), waist circumference and triceps skinfold thickness, and to explore the effects of potential determinants. Methods:  Logistic regression of anthropometric measurements, socio-demographic characteristics and self-reported parental height and weight ...

Aims To examine the associations of several markers of adiposity and a wide range of cardiovascular risk factors and biomarkers in pre-pubertal children. Methods and results Four measures of adiposity,body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA)-determined fat mass, and leptin concentration, were available in up to 7589 ...

Growth references are useful in monitoring a child's growth, which is an essential part of child care. The aim of this paper was to provide updated growth references for Polish school-aged children and adolescents and show the prevalence of overweight and obesity among them. Growth references for height, weight, and ...

Obesity has emerged as one of the most prevalent diseases in the western hemisphere, and its prevalence continues to increase. Obese children are at increased risk for several disorders, particularly affecting the cardiovascular and metabolic systems. The mechanisms leading to obesity-related morbidities are likely multifactorial, and include activation of inflammatory ...

We aimed to investigate the prevalence of impaired fasting glucose (IFG) and impaired glucose tolerance (IGT), and their associations with cardiometabolic risk factors, according to ethnicity in a large obese paediatric cohort. A 75-g oral glucose tolerance test was performed in 1,007 overweight/obese Dutch children of multi-ethnic origin, referred to ...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of a lifestyle intervention programme (nutrition and exercise counselling) on metabolic syndrome (MS) components, adipokines (leptin, adiponectin) and ghrelin levels in overweight children. A total of 61 overweight children aged 7-9 years (≥85th body mass index (BMI) percentile; 27 boys/34 girls) ...

The quality of the diet of obese children is poor. Eating habits may alter micronutrient status in obese patients. In this study, we determined the serum levels of selenium, zinc, vanadium, molybdenum, iron, copper, beryllium, boron, chromium, manganese, cobalt, silver, barium, aluminum, nickel, cadmium, mercury, and lead in obese Turkish ...

Abstract Objective. To test whether obese children with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease have impaired vascular function compared with obese children with normal liver fat content. Methods. Obese children (n=28, 16 males, mean age 10.9±0.7 years, body mass index [BMI] 31.9±4.5 kg/m(2)) with normal (HCLn) and increased hepatocellular lipid content (HCLi, ...

Abstract Objective. Retinol binding protein 4 (RBP4) is a novel adipocytokine that may link obesity and insulin resistance. We aimed to discriminate between primary and secondary associations of RBP4 with obesity and related disease. Design. We applied clinical and experimental approaches to investigate the association of RBP4 levels with normal ...

Obese children, without arterial hypertension, may be a unique clinical opportunity to evaluate the effect of obesity, per se, on ventricular repolarization, excluding the influence of possible comorbidities. The QTc dispersion (QTc-d), JTc dispersion (JTc-d), and transmural dispersion of repolarization (TDR) have been suggested to be electrocardiographic indexes reflecting the ...

Objective To evaluate four paediatric weight estimation methods (APLS, Luscombe and Owens, Best Guess and Broselow tape) in order to determine which are accurate for weight estimation in South African children. Method From a database of 2832 children aged 1-10 years seen at Red Cross Hospital in Cape Town, measured weight ...

Childhood overweight has been reported in developing countries. The World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended a standardized classification system in order to facilitate comparison across countries and studies. This study aims to assess the prevalence of overweight, obesity and thinness in a group of 10-11-year-old children using three references [the ...

Childhood obesity is associated with unfavorable lipid profile. Obese children have increased risk of development of coronary heart disease (CHD) in adult life. There is lack of data on association of dyslipidemia with obesity in children from India, hence, the present investigation was undertaken. Study was conducted in NCT of ...

Mechanisms leading to obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) in obese children are not well understood. The aim of the study was to determine anatomical risk factors associated with OSAS in obese children as compared with obese control subjects without OSAS. Magnetic resonance imaging was used to determine the size of ...