Back to Annual Meeting

Back to Annual Meeting

APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Ji-Yeong Kim¹, Bong-Keun Choe¹, Joong-Myung Choi¹, Chong-Guk Lee², Jin-Soo Moon², Eun-Kyeong Jeong³, Young-Taek Kim³, Jee-Hye Choi¹, Kyung-Sik Choi¹, and Jin-Hee Lee³. (1) Department of Preventive Medicine, School of Medicine, Kyunghee university, Hoegi-1, Dongdaemungu, Seoul, 130-701, South Korea, +82-11-338-3719, metacom@hanmail.net, (2) Department of Pediatrics, Inje university Ilsan Paik hospital, 2240, Daehwa-dong, Ilsan-gu, Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do, 411-706, South Korea, (3) Division of Chronic Disease Surveillance, Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 5, Nokbeon-dong, Eunpyung-gu, Seoul, 122-701, South Korea

Although prevalence of childhood obesity is on the rapid increase and this trend needs to be monitored in an appropriate way, no commonly accepted diagnostic criterion to define childhood obesity is yet to be available. We assessed the increasing tendency of childhood obesity from 1998 to 2005 in Korean children and adolescents (from 7 to 18 in years) using the obesity index (OI). The nationwide survey comprising 25,764 boys and 24,744 girls was executed. The OI was calculated using standard weight for height. OI more than 120% was defined as obesity and that more than 150% as severe obesity. The greatest difference in the prevalence of childhood and adolescent obesity in boy was observed at the age of 14, 8.5% in 1998 and 16.1% in 2005. And the greatest difference in the prevalence of childhood and adolescent obesity in girls was at the age of 17, 8.9% in 1998 and 15.0% in 2005. The prevalence of severe childhood and adolescent obesity at the age of 16 for boys and at the age of 17 for girls increased more than five times during the 7-year period (boys; 0.4% in 1998 and 2.1% in 2005, girls; 0.3% in 1998 and 1.6% in 2005). This study confirms the increasing rate of childhood and adolescent obesity, especially adolescent obesity in Korea. Since the prevalence of severe obesity is increasing rapidly, this study may support the necessity of preventive approach to decrease the prevalence of childhood and adolescent obesity.

Learning Objectives:

At the end of this session, the participant will be able to
• recognize the increasing prevalence of childhood and adolescent obesity during the seven-year period in Korea;
• discuss the necessity of preventive approach to decrease the prevalence of childhood and adolescent obesity

Keywords: Obesity, Children and Adolescents

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No