title: Prevalence of overweight and obesity in Chinese preschoolers in Singapore.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  This study examines the prevalence of overweight and obesity in 6- to 72-month-old Chinese preschoolers in Singapore using 3 references.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a population-based cross-sectional study of 3009 Chinese preschoolers aged 6 to 72 months from southwestern and western parts of Singapore. Overweight and obesity were defi ned by using the Center for Disease Control (CDC) (85th and 95th percentile, respectively), the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) and the local National Health Group Polyclinics (NHGP), Singapore (90th and 97th percentile, respectively) references.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The prevalence of overweight and obesity in 24 to 72 months old Chinese children were 8.1% and 7.1% (the CDC reference), 7.6% and 3.9% (the IOTF reference) and 7.5% and 5.3% (the local reference [NHGP]) respectively. For preschoolers aged 6 to 72 months, the prevalence of overweight and obesity was 7.0% and 5.3%, respectively, using the local reference. An increasing trend in the prevalence of obesity with increasing age was seen in both genders, using the CDC and IOTF references (P ≤0.001 and 0.001, respectively). The boys were more likely to be obese than the girls using the CDC reference (OR = 1.42, 95% CI, 1.02 to 1.97, P = 0.03).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study showed a lower prevalence of overweight and obesity among Chinese preschoolers in Singapore when compared to other countries like the United States, Italy, Chile using the CDC and/or IOTF references. The CDC reference overestimated whereas the IOTF reference underestimated the prevalence of overweight and obesity for our population when compared to using the local NHGP reference.
authors.affiliation: Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University Health Systems, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
authors.forename: Mar Khin
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Pwint
authors.forename: Yung Seng
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Teck Yee
authors.initials: TY
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.forename: Seang Mei
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Saw
mesh_terms: D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002681:China / Q000208:ethnology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D009765:Obesity / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000208:ethnology; D050177:Overweight / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000208:ethnology*; D015995:Prevalence; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012846:Singapore / Q000453:epidemiology