title: Preschool overweight and obesity in urban and rural Vietnam: differences in prevalence and associated factors.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Childhood obesity may soon be an equally important health threat as undernutrition and infectious diseases. Accurate information about prevalence and risk factors of obesity in children is important for the design of prevention.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study was to estimate prevalence of overweight and obesity for preschool children in two Vietnamese areas, one urban and one rural, and to identify risk factors.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional study was conducted in urban Dong Da and rural Ba Vi districts, Hanoi, Vietnam. Totally, 2,677 children, 1,364 urban and 1,313 rural, were weighed and measured. Caregivers were interviewed. Background information about children and families was obtained from regular household surveys.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The prevalence of overweight and obesity combined were 21.1% (95% CI 18.9-23.3) in the urban area and 7.6% (95% CI 6.2-9.2) in the rural. Multiple logistic regression revealed that at the individual level, in both sites, the risk increased with increased child age. The identified urban risk factors were being a boy, consuming large amounts of food, eating fast, and indoor activity less than 2 hours per day. The rural risk factors were frequent consumption of fatty food. At the family level, significant association was found in rural areas with frequent watching of food advertisements on television.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Overweight and obesity are emerging problems in Vietnam, particularly in the urban context. Prevention programs should focus on education about healthy eating habits at early preschool age and need to be tailored separately for urban and rural areas since the risk factors differ. Non-healthy food advertisement needs to be restricted.
authors.affiliation: Outpatient Department, National Hospital of Paediatrics, Hanoi, Vietnam.|Section for Epidemiology and Social Medicine (EPSO), Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, Institute of Medicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden; minhloan68@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Loan Minh
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Do
authors.affiliation: Family Medicine Department, Hanoi Medical University, Hanoi, Vietnam.
authors.forename: Toan Khanh
authors.initials: TK
authors.lastname: Tran
authors.affiliation: Health Metrics, Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, Institute of Medicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Eriksson
authors.affiliation: Health Metrics, Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, Institute of Medicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.|School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
authors.forename: Max
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Petzold
authors.affiliation: Family Medicine Department, Hanoi Medical University, Hanoi, Vietnam.
authors.forename: Chuc T K
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Nguyen
authors.affiliation: Section for Epidemiology and Social Medicine (EPSO), Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, Institute of Medicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.|Angered Hospital, Gothenburg, Sweden.
authors.forename: Henry
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ascher
mesh_terms: D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D014943:Global Health; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D050177:Overweight / Q000453:epidemiology*; D063766:Pediatric Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D012424:Rural Population; D012923:Social Class; D014505:Urban Population; D014744:Vietnam / Q000453:epidemiology
keywords: Vietnam; obesity; overweight; preschool children