Incidence and Complications of Obesity in Pubescent School Children

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: In recent years, obesity in children has become one of the major nutritional problems, and the trend is that number of obese children is increasing. The purpose of this research is to examine the incidence of obesity in pubescent school children in Seoul and Cheju, and to analyze body fat component, complications and eating habits of those obese children in order to obtain basic information for prevention of obesity in children in the future. METHODS: The total number of 4,555 junior high school students from 4 schools consisting of 1,234 boys and 3,321 girls were examined based on their height and weight. For those children, obesity index was calculated based on the 50th percentile obtained from standard weight for height of children proposed by the Korean Pediatric Association in 1985. The body fat component was measured and compared between 275 children of 530 obese children(11.6%) and 275 children from the control group by Futrex-5000 A body fat and fitness computer. Of those children, oral glucose tolerance test, blood pressure, and biochemical studies were performed on 31 children whose follow-up was possible, and their exercise load and eating habits were examined. RESULTS: It was found that 11.6% of the subject children were obese, which consisted of 12.4% in boys and 11.4% in girls. The study showed 11.4% obesity ratio in Seoul and 13.2% obesity ratio in Cheju, but the difference was insignificant. Percents of bodyfat was 25.3+/-5.7% (mean+/-SD) for control group, 32.9+/-4.8% for mild obesity group, 35.6% for moderate obesity group, and 37.2+/-4.0% for severe obesity group. The morbidity of complications of those 31 children whose follow-up was possible showed the highest percentage of 29.0% in hyperlipidemia, and lower percentage in hypertension, elevated AST and/or ALT, glucose intolerance, diabetes, respectively. The eating habit analysis showed the total calorie intake/total energy expenditure ratio of 1.10 which is higher in calories than energy consumption, and the food intake evaluation showed that 23.3% of fat was contained in total calorie intake. CONCLUSIONS: The childhood obesity becomes the primary cause of adult obesity, hypertension and diabetes, and therefore, eating habits and exercise load should be carefully observed in order to prevent childhood obesity. In addition to the health care provided currently by schools, regular physical check-up should undertaken for early diagnosis to conduct appropriate tests and treatment.