Overweight and obesity are important public health concerns associated with a variety of negative physiological and psychological consequences in children, youth as well as in adults. The objective of this study was to evaluate the increase in childhood overweight and obesity in a Canadian sample of 7 to 12 year olds between 1979 and 1998 using the BMI as the indicator of obesity. Analyses of variance were performed on the data between the different study cohorts. The 85$\rm\sp{th}$ and 95$\rm\sp{th}$ age and gender specific percentile of BMI of the 1979 CAHPERD study respectively defined overweight and obesity cut-off points. Results support previous studies and clearly show a significant increase in the prevalence of overweight and obesity in today's children. They also show a higher increase of overweight and obesity in girls than in boys. Since childhood obesity is an increasingly important predictor of adult obesity and obesity in adults is associated with a number of health consequences, regular screening of children for overweight and obesity should be put in place and preventive measures taken when children are at risk. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uottawa.ca/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/8754 |
| Date | January 1999 |
| Creators | Grenier, Mark. |
| Contributors | Gauthier, Roger, |
| Publisher | University of Ottawa (Canada) |
| Source Sets | Université d’Ottawa |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 75 p. |
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