title: Trends in child and adolescent obesity prevalence according to socioeconomic position: protocol for a systematic review.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Obesity is a significant public health issue and is socially patterned, with greater prevalence of obesity observed in the most socioeconomically disadvantaged groups. Recent evidence suggests that the prevalence of childhood obesity is levelling off in some countries. However, this may not be the case across all socioeconomic strata. The aim of this review is to examine whether trends in child and adolescent obesity prevalence since 1990 differ according to socioeconomic position in developed countries.
  
  
  METHODS
  An electronic search will be conducted via Ovid Medline, Embase, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Scopus and Cochrane Collaboration to identify articles that report trends in obesity prevalence in children and adolescents according to socioeconomic position. We will also search grey literature databases including the Virtual Library for Public Health and the System for Information on Grey Literature, as well as websites from relevant organisations. Articles that report on a series of cross sectional studies; describe one or more measure of obesity with data recorded at two or more time points since 1990; and report trends by at least one indicator of socioeconomic position will be included. Quality of included studies will be evaluated according to criteria that consider both internal and external validity. Descriptive analysis will be performed to examine trends since 1990 in childhood obesity prevalence according to socioeconomic position.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The review will provide a picture of change over time in developed countries of childhood obesity prevalence across socioeconomic strata and identify whether changes in childhood obesity prevalence are experienced equally across socioeconomic groups.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  PROSPERO CRD42014007625.
authors.forename: Alexandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chung
authors.forename: Kathryn
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Backholer
authors.forename: Evelyn
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.forename: Claire
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Palermo
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Keating
authors.affiliation: Obesity and Population Health, Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, Level 4, 99 Commercial Road, Melbourne VIC 3004, Australia. anna.peeters@bakeridi.edu.au.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Peeters
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D006801:Humans; D063766:Pediatric Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D000078202:Systematic Reviews as Topic