ESPE Abstracts (2016) 86 P-P1-466

ESPE2016 Poster Presentations Fat Metabolism and Obesity P1 (48 abstracts)

Remarkable Increase in the Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity among School Age Children in Antalya, Turkey, between 2003 and 2015

Gamze Celmeli a , Yusuf Curek a , Zumrut Arslan b , Mehmet Yardimsever c , Mustafa Koyun d , Sema Akcurin a & Iffet Bircan a


aAkdeniz University School of Medicine, Department of Pediatric Endocrinology, Antalya, Turkey; bAkdeniz University School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Antalya, Turkey; cAkdeniz University School of Medicine, Department of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics, Antalya, Turkey; dAkdeniz University School of Medicine, Department of Pediatric Nephrology, Antalya, Turkey


Background: The prevalence of childhood obesity is increasing all over the world and leading to an increase in obesity-related health problems such as adult obesity, cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes and depression. There is no nationwide systematic study investigating obesity trends in Turkish children.

Objective and hypotheses: The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of overweight and obesity among school age children, to compare the data with those of 2003 and to observe the change in BMI in Antalya, Turkey.

Method: The study included 58 schools from 124, throughout the city centre of Antalya, Turkey during the period March-April 2015. A number of 1687 school children (boys 873, girls 814) aged 6–14 years were chosen from 61,092 children, using a population based stratified cluster sampling method. BMI was calculated by measuring the weight and standing height. Overweight was defined as BMI between 85th and 95th percentile, and obesity as BMI above the 95th percentile.

Results: The overall prevalence of obesity was 9.8% while overweight was 23.2%. There was no significant difference between boys and girls for overweight prevalence. However obesity prevalence was higher in boys (11.3%) than girls (8.1%) (P<0.05). Comparing with 2003 data, the values of BMI were found to be increased in all age groups (Figure 1). The prevalence of obesity and overweight showed an increase up to 2–3 times from 2003 to 2015 (Table 1).

Table 1. The comparison of 6–14 years old school children in Antalya, between 2003 and 2015.
20032015P
Number17751687
Age (year)6–14 6–14
Gender (girls/boys)867/908814/873>0.05
Obesity (OB) (%)3.49.80.0001
Overweight (OW) (%)14.623.20.0001
OB+OW (%)18330.0001

Conclusion: The prevalence of obesity is increasing rapidly in Antalya, Turkey. Because obesity is a major health problem, determination the prevalence of obesity and overweight at regular intervals and taking measures in this regard is critical.

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