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Burden of childhood obesity shifting to poorer families in Mexico
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The prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity in Mexico is among the highest in the world, with the burden of obesity shifting from wealthier families in urban areas toward those of lower socioeconomic status, according to findings published in Nutrition & Diabetes.
“Households with lower income levels make consumption decisions that allow them to obtain a higher level of calories at a lower price, even if this represents a lower dietary quality,” Sonia Hernandez-Cordero, MS, PhD, of the Center of Research in Nutrition and Health at the National Public Health Institute in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico, and colleagues wrote. “The lower the socioeconomic level, the greater the percentage of purchase and consumption of high-energy-dense foods, as well as the lower the purchase and consumption of low-energy-dense foods (mainly fruits and vegetables and low-fat/-sugar foods). This phenomenon has been reported by others, indicating that there is a negative association between income and dietary quality.”
Hernandez-Cordero and colleagues analyzed BMI data from 37,147 children and adolescents obtained in 2012 as part of the National Health and Nutrition Survey (ENSANUT-2012), a nationally representative sample of the Mexican population. Researchers compared measurements with data from previous ENSANUT surveys conducted in 1988, 1999 and 2006 to analyze trends from 1988 to 2012 for children younger than 5 years and adolescents, and from 1999 to 2012 for school-aged children. Researchers used the WHO child growth standard to define overweight and obesity.
Among all children in 2012, 28.8% were either at risk for obesity (preschool children) or had overweight or obesity. Among preschool children, 23.8% were considered at risk for obesity; 9.7% had overweight or obesity, with a higher combined prevalence observed in boys (35.2%) vs. girls (31.8%; P < .001). The combined prevalence of overweight and obesity among school-aged children was 34.4%, again with a higher prevalence observed in boys (36.9%) vs. girls (32%; P < .001). The combined prevalence of overweight and obesity among adolescents was 35.8% for girls and 34.1% for boys, with a slightly higher trend observed for girls (P = .03), according to the researchers.
In the past 24 years, the prevalence of overweight and obesity increased across all age groups; the highest rate of increase was observed in female adolescents, followed by school-aged girls, the researchers noted. However, for school-aged girls (from 1999 to 2012) and adolescent girls (from 1988 to 2012), overweight and obesity increased across all periods at a declining trend, with an overall change of 0.5 and one percentage points per year, respectively.
When stratified by Household Living Condition Index (HLCI) quintiles, researchers found that the combined prevalence of overweight and obesity increased at a higher rate in the lower quintiles for boys and girls compared with the highest quintile. For girls in the lowest HLCI quintiles, the change in prevalence in overweight and obesity was 10.5 percentage points per year between 1999 and 2012, vs. a change of four percentage points per year for girls in the highest HLCI quintile (P = .07). For boys in the lowest HLCI quintiles, the change in prevalence in overweight and obesity was 8.8 percentage points per year between 1999 and 2012, vs. a change of two percentage points per year for girls in the highest HLCI quintile (P = .37). – by Regina Schaffer
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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