Prevalence and trend of overweight and obesity among schoolchildren in Ahvaz, Southwest of Iran

Prevalence of overweight and obesity among Iranian population: a systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND

Obesity is a major risk factor for chronic diseases. Politicians and practitioners should be aware of the dramatic increase in obesity and its subsequent complications to prevent associated health risks. This systematic review aimed to provide better insight into the prevalence of overweight and obesity in the Iranian population.

METHOD

An evaluation was conducted on all published observational studies from both national (SID, Irandoc, Iranmedex) and international (Web of Knowledge, PubMed, Scopus) sources, which reported the prevalence of overweight/obesity among normal population samples, between January 2012 and December 2021.

RESULT

A total of 152 eligible studies were included in this meta-analysis. Of the 152 selected studies, 74 reported the prevalence of overweight/obesity in patients aged ≤ 18 years, and 61 studies in adults. In the rest of the articles (17 studies), the results were reported for a combination of these age groups. The prevalence of overweight and obesity in Iran was estimated at 20.1 (95% CI 17.92-22.30) and 13.44 (95% CI 11.76-15.22), respectively. This percentage (95% CI) was 11.71 (10.98-12.46) for overweight and 8.08 (7.02-9.22) for obesity in those aged ≤ 18 years, and 35.26 (32.61-37.99) for overweight and 21.38 (19.61-23.20) for obesity in those aged > 18 years. The overall prevalence of overweight and obesity in the entire population was 35.09% (95% CI 31.31-38.98).

CONCLUSION

As obesity is on the rise in Iran, we should seek both weight loss strategies and ways to control comorbidities associated with high BMI.

Overweight and obesity: worldwide risk factors for pediatric hypertension

BACKGROUND

Childhood obesity and hypertension (HTN) are among serious global health concerns. Since risk factors of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) should be managed early in life and there is little information about children under the age of 6 in the community, the study was designed aiming to address these issues.

METHODS

This cross-sectional study was performed on 1,091, 3-6-year-old children in Gorgan City, located in north of Iran. Height, weight, body mass index (BMI), and blood pressure were measured using standard techniques. All statistical tests were conducted using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) for windows.

RESULTS

Given the study, respectively 3.8 and 4.5% of the boys and girls were underweight, 17.4 and 16.5% of the boys and girls were overweight, and 20.8 and 19.3% of the boys and girls were obese. In addition, 3.4, 0.7, and 0.4% of the subjects had presystolic, systolic, and prediastolic HTN, respectively. There is a significant linear relationship between BMI and systolic and diastolic blood pressures. It was found that the risk of obesity in mothers with college education was estimated to be almost 5 times higher than in mothers with lower levels of education.

CONCLUSION

Compared to the values announced by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the mean height, weight, and BMI of children in our study was higher. Educational interventions should be considered in society, especially for mothers with a high level of education and employed ones. It is recommended that blood pressure measurements, especially in obese children, be carefully considered at each pediatric visit so that children with HTN could be quickly identified and treated.

Comparison of Support Vector Machine, Naïve Bayes and Logistic Regression for Assessing the Necessity for Coronary Angiography

(1) Background: Coronary angiography is considered to be the most reliable method for the diagnosis of cardiovascular disease. However, angiography is an invasive procedure that carries a risk of complications; hence, it would be preferable for an appropriate method to be applied to determine the necessity for angiography. The objective of this study was to compare support vector machine, naïve Bayes and logistic regressions to determine the diagnostic factors that can predict the need for coronary angiography. These models are machine learning algorithms. Machine learning is considered to be a branch of artificial intelligence. Its aims are to design and develop algorithms that allow computers to improve their performance on data analysis and decision making. The process involves the analysis of past experiences to find practical and helpful regularities and patterns, which may also be overlooked by a human. (2) Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed on 1187 candidates for angiography referred to Ghaem Hospital, Mashhad, Iran from 2011 to 2012. A logistic regression, naive Bayes and support vector machine were applied to determine whether they could predict the results of angiography. Afterwards, the sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, AUC (area under the curve) and accuracy of all three models were computed in order to compare them. All analyses were performed using R 3.4.3 software (R Core Team; Auckland, New Zealand) with the help of other software packages including receiver operating characteristic (ROC), caret, e1071 and rminer. (3) Results: The area under the curve for logistic regression, naïve Bayes and support vector machine were similar—0.76, 0.74 and 0.75, respectively. Thus, in terms of the model parsimony and simplicity of application, the naïve Bayes model with three variables had the best performance in comparison with the logistic regression model with seven variables and support vector machine with six variables. (4) Conclusions: Gender, age and fasting blood glucose (FBG) were found to be the most important factors to predict the result of coronary angiography. The naïve Bayes model performed well using these three variables alone, and they are considered important variables for the other two models as well. According to an acceptable prediction of the models, they can be used as pragmatic, cost-effective and valuable methods that support physicians in decision making.

Prevalence of childhood and adolescent overweight and obesity in Asian countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis

INTRODUCTION

We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to estimate the prevalence of overweight and obesity in children (aged 5-12 years) and adolescents (aged 12-19 years) in Asian countries. Study design: Systematic review and meta-analysis.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

We comprehensively searched specialised databases for relevant studies conducted in Asian countries between January 1, 1999, and May 30, 2017. Random effects models (using the DerSimonian-Laird method) and generic inverse variance methods were used for quantitative data synthesis. Sensitivity analysis was conducted using the 'leave-one-out' method. Heterogeneity was quantitatively assessed using the I² index. Systematic review registration: CRD42016033061.

RESULTS

Among 22,286 identified citations, 41 studies met the inclusion criteria with n = 71,998 and n = 353,513 for children and adolescents. The pooled prevalence (overall, boys and girls) was 5.8% (n = 4175), 7.0% (n = 2631) and 4.8% (n = 1651) for obesity in children aged 5-11 years; 8.6% (n = 30,402), 10.1% (n = 17,990) and 6.2% (n = 10,874) for obesity in adolescents age 12-19 years. For overweight in children the values for overall, boys and girls were 11.2% (n = 7900), 11.7% (n = 4280) and 10.9% (n = 3698) respectively; and for overweight in adolescents, 14.6% (n = 46,886), 15.9% (27,183), and 13.7% (20,574). These findings were robust in sensitivity analyses. In children and adolescents a higher percentage of boys than girls are obese (children = 7.0 vs. 4.8%, adolescents = 10.1 vs. 6.2%, p < 0.001, respectively). Furthermore, in children and adolescents a higher percentage of boys than girls are overweight (children = 11.7 vs. 10.9%, adolescents = 15.9 vs. 13.7%, p < 0.001, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS

In view of the number of children who are overweight or obese, the associated detrimental effects on health, and the cost to health-care systems, implementation of programmes to monitor and prevent unhealthy weight gain in children and adolescents is needed throughout Asian countries.

Demographic determinants of obesity, and adherence to dietary and physical activity guidelines among 4 to 6-year-old children in Behbahan city, southwest Iran, 2016

Background and aim

The world is experiencing an alarming increase in prevalence of childhood obesity. The aim of this study was to determine the demographic determinants of obesity and adherence to dietary and physical activity guidelines among children aged 4 to 6 years old in Behbahan city, southwest Iran, in 2016.

Methods

This cross-sectional study was conducted on 120 preschool children aged 4 to 6 years old in Behbahan city, southwest Iran, in 2016. Multi-stage random sampling was done. The weight and height of the children were measured with standard methods. The demographic and behavioral factors data were collected in self report questionnaires which were completed by the children’s mothers. The Chi-square test, Independent-samples t-tests, One-way analysis of variances and logistic regression analysis were used for data analysis. SPSS software (version 22) was employed.

Results

This study showed that 88.3% of the children did not meet the guideline of 5 servings per day of fruit and vegetables. Only 2.5% met the guideline of 60 minutes of structured physical activity every day. Sex and mother’s occupation status were associated with adhering to screen time guideline. This study found a significant difference in the mean of screen time between sexes. Boys were more likely to meet the screen time guideline. A significant association between adhering to physical activity guidelines and mother’s occupation status was revealed. Significant statistical relationship between demographic factors and BMI categories was not illustrated. Demographic covariates were not significantly related to adherence to dietary and physical activity guidelines.

Conclusion

In preventive programs of obesity among 4 to 6-year-old children key lifestyle behaviors and demographic factors need to be considered.

Comparing the role of standard references on the prevalence of Iranian children and adolescents' overweight and obesity: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background:

Obesity is a major risk factor for chronic diseases and has a role on high blood pressure, diabetes type II, etc., This review assesses the prevalence of Iranian children obesity and overweight for different age categories and compares the three standard definitions of obesity.

Materials and Methods:

To retrieve desirable studies concerning childhood anthropometric data from different area of Iran, the MEDLINE, Scopus, and different local databases such as Scientific Information database were used. The studies reported the prevalence of obesity or overweight of children < 6, 6–12, and 12–20 years old, despite differences between definitions of childhood obesity, were included in the study. We combined the reported prevalence of the overweight and obesity with regard to age and gender, and also by the different standard references which are the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the World Health Organization (WHO) definition, and the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) references. The analysis was carried out using STATA software.

Results:

Our review covered 75 articles reported the prevalence of overweight or obesity among children and adolescents for different age groups in Iran. Our meta-regression analysis showed that the prevalence of obesity and overweight did not vary significantly in gender and age categories, but different definitions provide different prevalence of overweight and obesity.

Conclusion:

The effective factors on obesity and overweight included administration policy and organizational, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and social factors. CDC and WHO references intended in monitoring children's growth and the IOTF cutoffs would rather provide a common set of definitions that researchers and policymakers could use for descriptive and comparative purposes.