Obesity, fitness and health in Taiwanese children and adolescents.

Full Abstract

OBJECTIVE:
To examine the prevalence of childhood and adolescent obesity in Taiwan and investigate the association between excess weight and physical fitness and blood pressure.

DESIGN:
Cross-sectional study.

SUBJECTS:
A total of 13 935 children and adolescents aged 6-18 years (boys:
7031, girls:
6904) were involved in the 1999 survey and 24 586 (boys:
12 367, girls:
12 219) were available in the 2001 survey.

MEASUREMENTS:
Weight, height, systolic and diastolic blood pressures, and health-related fitness tests (bent-leg curl-ups, sit-and-reach test and step test) were measured.

RESULTS:
The overall prevalence of obesity (including overweight) in boys was 19.8% in 1999 and 26.8% in 2001. It was lower in girls with 15.2% in 1999 and 16.5% in 2001. The normal weight group performed better (P<0.05) than the overweight/obese group in all fitness tests except in the 2001 sit-and-reach test where there were no differences between the two groups. The risk of hypertension increased nearly two times for the overweight/obese-fit group and nearly three times for the overweight/obese-unfit group compared to the normal weight-fit group (adjusted odds ratio (AOR)=1.93, 95%CI=1.514-2.451 and AOR=2.93, 95%CI=2.493-3.454, respectively).

CONCLUSION:
Overall, the findings demonstrated that there is an increasing trend in overweight/obesity prevalence for Taiwanese youth even in a 2-year period. The overweight/obese youngsters tend to have poorer muscular strength and cardiovascular endurance than the normal weight group. The overweight/obese and unfit group had a greater risk of hypertension than other groups. However, this risk was significantly lower if obese/overweight children had a higher than average level of cardiovascular fitness.

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Author information

Author/s: Chen, L J (LJ); Fox, K R (KR); Haase, A (A); Wang, J M (JM);

Affiliation: Department of Exercise and Health Sciences, Centre for Sport, Exercise and Health, University of Bristol, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TP, UK.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: European journal of clinical nutrition (Eur J Clin Nutr), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2006-Dec; vol 60 (issue 12) : pp 1367-75

Dates: Created 2006/12/05; Completed 2007/02/15;

PMID: 16775581, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Hypertension - epidemiology; etiology
Male
Obesity - complications; epidemiology
Odds Ratio
Physical Fitness
Prevalence
Risk Factors
Sex Factors
Taiwan - epidemiology

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