Prevalence of underweight, overweight, general and central obesity among 8-15-years old Bulgarian children and adolescents (Smolyan region, 2012-2014).

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this work is to investigate the distribution of underweight, overweight, the general and central obesity in 8-15-year-old Bulgarian children and adolescents, through the use of the anthropometric indices BMI and WHtR.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Subject of this study are 878 children and adolescents (437 boys and 441 girls) of Smolyan region, Bulgaria, at the age of 8 to 15 years. The study is cross-sectional and was conducted in the period 2012-2014. The body height, weight and waist circumference were measured. In addition, the body mass index (BMI) and waist to height ratio (WHtR) were calculated. Overweight and obesity were defined according to the cut-off points of BMI, recommended of IOTF and developed by Cole et al. (2000; 2007). The central obesity was defined according to the discriminatory values of 0.500 of WHtR. The collected data were analysed by statistical software packages STATISTICA 10.0 and SPSS 16.

RESULTS: Overweight occurs among 18.8% of the boys and 17.0% of the girls, and obesity occurs among 7.6% of boys and 3.7% of the girls. The underweight are 8.0% of the boys and 10.4% of the girls. Central obesity (WHtR ≥ 0.500) occur among average 12.75% of all investigated children independently of their nutritional status (16.2% of boys and 9.3% of girls). With central obesity (WHtR ≥ 0.500) are on average 2.7% of all boys and girls with normal weight (n = 96) and an average 46.82% of all participants with overweight and with obesity (n = 205). With increased health risk (WHtR ≥ 0.500) are total of 2.01% (n=16) of all surveyed children (n = 793) from categories normal weight.

CONCLUSION: There has been an increase in prevalence of overweight and obesity among Bulgarian children and adolescents from Smolyan region during the over one last decade. The relatively high percentage of underweight children, especially among in group of the girls alter puberty. The central obesity, as well as its combination with overweight or general obesity is more frequent in boys than in girls.