High prevalence of overweight and obesity in 11-15-year-old children from Sicily.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: To evaluate the prevalence of overweight and obesity in children and adolescents from Sicily, we carried out a cross-sectional study in a large cohort of 48,897 (24,119 males and 24,778 females) randomly selected 11-15-year-old Sicilian schoolchildren.

METHODS AND RESULTS: Anthropometric data (weight and height) were obtained in all children. Urban vs. rural areas were taken into account. Centiles were obtained using the LMS method. Obesity and overweight prevalence were defined using as references both the values of the National Center for Disease Control (CDC 2000) in the United States and those of the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF). Median body mass index (BMI) values in Sicily were comparable to values observed in South and Center-North Italy. BMI cut-off values in Sicilian children were higher than reference values established in the U.S. CDC growth chart 2000. Using both the IOTF or the U.S. CDC 2000 cut-off values the prevalence of overweight and obesity in 11-15-year-old Sicilian children was very high: nearly 40% at age 11 and, although progressively decreasing with age increase, still over 25% at age 15.

CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of overweight and obesity in 11-15-year-old Sicilian schoolchildren is one of the highest ever reported. The prevalence is much higher at a younger age; thereafter it progressively decreases and values tend to reconcile with those observed in other geographical areas at age 14-15.