High prevalence of overweight and obesity among 6-year-old children in Finnmark County, North- Norway
Acta Pediatrica, 05/24/2012
Kokkvoll A et al. – In the northernmost county Finnmark, the prevalence of overweight including obesity among 6– year–old children was somewhat higher than in previous surveys from Norway, especially among girls.
Methods- This is a survey of 1774 children born during 1999 and 2000 from 18 of 19 child health care centres in Finnmark.
- Body mass index data extracted retrospectively in 2007 from health records at the age of 6 years was compared with international definitions of over- and underweight.
- The prevalence figures were further compared with socio-demographic figures on municipality level.
- Overall, 19% of the children were classified as overweight or obese; 5% were classified as obese.
- The prevalence of overweight and obesity was higher among girls (22%) than among boys (16%) (p<0.01).
- The prevalence of underweight was 8% among both girls and boys.
- Despite large variations in the prevalence of overweight and obesity between municipalities (9-35%), no association was found with municipality figures on socio-demographic factors.
