Bodily Characteristics and Lifestyle of Czech Children Aged 7.0 to 10.99 Years, Prevalence of Childhood Obesity in Relation to the Size of the Community

Overview

In 1999 - 2000 in the Czech Republic a survey of the prevalence of obesity was made. The assessment was made by the transversal method in elementary schools in the majority of areas in the Czech Republic. Children aged 7.00 - 10.99 years were investigated. The survey comprised a total of 3362 children (1668 girls and 1694 boys). A total of 12 anthropometric dimensions were recorded and questionnaires addressed to the children and parents were analyzed.From the results ensued that the ratio of obese children of both sexes in the CR (i.e. children with BMI values above the 97th percentile of the reference population) increased. This zone comprised 6.0% boys and 5.6 girls of the investigated group. An important finding was also the increase of mean values of the abdominal circumference of the children in all age group in both sexes.Although from the questinnaires it is apparent that a large percentage of children is engaged in sports and rural children report usually several sports, in villages a higher prevalence of obesity was found.Analysis of the dietary questionnaires revealed that only 62.9% children in large towns eat breakfast, the position in villages is similar - 63,9%. In the group of children with excessive body weight fever children have breakfast (only 54.1%), in the group of children with a low body weight the majority eat breakfast (75.3%).The majority of children have a mid-morning snack at school which the bring from home. As regards school lunch the majority of children from large towns replied that they have lunch at school. The number of rural children who had school lunch was smaller. An afternoon snack is taken by less than half the children in different groups. No significant difference was found between groups.The ratio of obese children in different communities is related unequivocally to the size of the community. In smaller communities there are more obese children (according to our data 6.9%) and in large towns the ratio of obese children is 2.3%. In large towns there is also a greated proportion of thin children - 12.1%, in small communities 8.6%.It was found that there is a higher percentage of obese children in families where the mother had elementary education as compared with children of mothers with secondary or university education. Mothers with elementary education have 9.6% obese children while university educated mothers have only 3.7% obese children.

Key words:
childhood obesity, somatic characteristic and lifestyle of Czech children