title: The current prevalence and regional disparities in general and central obesity among children and adolescents in Shandong, China.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Childhood obesity has increased dramatically during the past decades, both in developing and developed countries. The present study examined the prevalence and regional disparities in general and central obesity among children and adolescents in Shandong, China.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 30,459 students (15,249 boys and 15,210 girls) aged 7-18years participated in the study. Height, weight and waist circumference (WC) of all subjects were measured, body mass index (BMI) and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) were calculated. The BMI cutoff points recommended by the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) were used to define general obesity. Central obesity was defined as WHtR≥0.5. Both BMI and WHtR were used to define three types of obesity as follows: general obesity only, central obesity only and combined obesity.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The overall prevalences of general obesity only, central obesity only and combined obesity were 10.99, 8.47 and 8.70% for boys and 9.47, 5.12 and 3.19% for girls, respectively. The sum of the prevalence of the three types of obesity was 28.16% for boys and 17.78% for girls, boys had higher prevalence of obesity than girls (P<0.01). Substantial urban-rural and regional disparities exist in childhood obesity, children and adolescents from urban, coastal and high socioeconomic status (SES) districts showed a higher prevalence of obesity than their counterparts from rural, inland and low SES districts (P<0.01).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The widespread prevalence of obesity in children and adolescents has become an important public health concern. Results from this study also suggested that the additional measurement of WC (WHtR) is better than BMI alone to identify obese individuals, distinguishing the types of obesity and examining the prevalence of various types of obesity is useful in practice.
authors.affiliation: Shandong Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Shandong University Institute of Preventive Medicine, Shandong, China. Electronic address: sdcdczyx@163.com.
authors.forename: Ying-Xiu
authors.initials: YX
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Yantai Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Shandong, China.
authors.forename: Zhao-Xia
authors.initials: ZX
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Shandong Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Shandong University Institute of Preventive Medicine, Shandong, China.
authors.forename: Jin-Shan
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Shandong Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Shandong University Institute of Preventive Medicine, Shandong, China.
authors.forename: Zun-Hua
authors.initials: ZH
authors.lastname: Chu
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009765:Obesity / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000191:economics / Q000453:epidemiology; D056128:Obesity, Abdominal / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000191:economics / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015995:Prevalence; D012424:Rural Population; D012923:Social Class; D014505:Urban Population / Q000639:trends; D055105:Waist Circumference / Q000502:physiology
keywords: Adolescent; Body mass index; Prevalence; Regional disparity; Types of obesity; Waist-to-height ratio