The prevalence of overweight and obesity among Danish school children
In 14 Danish municipalities physicians have gathered weight and height data from 7541 9th grade students (86.7% of all students in 9th grade participating) Overall 25.2% of the population were overweight (body mass index 90th percentile) Boys were more frequently overweight than girls (29.3% vs. 21.1% (P 0.05) 14.1% of the boys and 8.2% of the girls were obese (body mass index 97th percentile) Categorizing the participating municipalities by socioeconomic status students in municipalities with low status had a significantly higher prevalence of overweight than students in municipalities with high status. Overweight and obesity among Danish school children is a major concern and there are significant social differences in the prevalence of overweight.
Obesity reviews an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity