Prevalence of underweight, overweight, and obesity among Chinese children and adolescents aged 7-17 years in 2010, 2014 and 2019.

Abstract

This paper aimed to investigate the prevalence of underweight, overweight, and obesity among children and adolescents in China in 2010, 2014 and 2019. A total of 590,836 Chinese children and adolescents aged 7-17 years (295,602 boys) were included in the Chinese National Surveillance on Students' Constitution and Health surveys in 2010, 2014, and 2019. Weight categories were based on sex- and age-specific body mass index (BMI) cut-off values developed by the Working Group on Obesity in China. Prevalence estimates of overweight always include obesity. The chi-square test was used to estimate differences in detection rates across survey years. Height and BMI increased from 149.4 cm and 18.3 kg/m² in 2010 to 151.6 cm and 19.2 kg/m² in 2019, respectively. Trends in height and BMI slowed, but trends in BMI among girls accelerated. The prevalence of underweight among Chinese children and adolescents aged 7-17 years continued to decrease from 9.7% in 2010 to 7.5% in 2019 (p < 0.05). The prevalence of overweight and obesity progressively increased from 14.9% and 5.2% to 24.6% and 10.5%, respectively. The trends for the prevalence of underweight, overweight and obesity decreased, but for the prevalence of obesity among girls increased. The trends for the prevalence of overweight and obesity decreased in younger children but increased in older adolescents. Future policies and preventive interventions should prioritize girls and adolescents, especially older girls.