title: Overweight and obesity in Mexican children and adolescents during the last 25 years.
abstract: The objective of the study was to provide current estimates of the prevalence and trends of overweight and obesity (OW+OB) in Mexican children and adolescents.
  
  
  
  Body mass index objectively measured was analyzed for 37 147 children and adolescents aged 0-19 years obtained in 2012 as part of the National Health and Nutrition Survey (ENSANUT-2012), a nationally representative sample of the Mexican population. In addition, data from previous National Nutrition Surveys obtained in 1988, 1999 and 2006 were compared with analyze trends over a 24-year period (1988-2012) for children <5 years of age and adolescents and over a 13-year period (1999-2012) for school-age children. World Health Organization Child Growth Standard was used to define OW+OB.
  
  
  
  In 2012, 33.5% of children <5 years of age (both sexes) were at risk of overweight or were overweight (OW); 32% and 36.9% of girls and boys 5-11 years of age were OW+OB, respectively, and 35.8% and 34.1% of female and male adolescents were OW+OB, respectively. Statistically significant trends were documented for all age groups during the study period. Overall change in the combined prevalence in preschool children was 6.3±1.0 percentage points (pp; P<0.001; 0.26 pp per year) in the last 24 years, showing the highest increase between 1988 and 1999, whereas for school-age girls (from 1999 to 2012) and adolescent females (from 1988 to 2012), OW+OB increased across all periods at a declining trend, with an overall change of 0.5 and 1.0 pp per year, respectively. Changes in the prevalence of OW+OB were highest among children and adolescents in the lowest quintile of the household living condition index.
  
  
  
  Prevalence of OW+OB among children and adolescents increased significantly during the last 13-24 years. The rate of increase has declined in the last 6 years in all age groups. Changes in prevalence of OW+OB presented here suggest that, in Mexico, the burden of obesity is shifting toward the groups with lower socioeconomic level.
authors.affiliation: Centro de Investigación en Nutrición y Salud, Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hernández-Cordero
authors.affiliation: Centro de Investigación en Nutrición y Salud, Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cuevas-Nasu
authors.affiliation: Centro de Investigación en Nutrición y Salud, Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico.
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Morán-Ruán
authors.affiliation: Centro de Investigación en Matemáticas A.C., Unidad Aguascalientes, Aguascalientes, México.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Méndez-Gómez Humarán
authors.affiliation: Centro de Investigación en Nutrición y Salud, Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico.
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Ávila-Arcos
authors.affiliation: Centro de Investigación en Nutrición y Salud, Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico.
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Rivera-Dommarco
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008800:Mexico / Q000453:epidemiology; D009749:Nutrition Surveys; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology*; D050177:Overweight / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D055815:Young Adult