Every fifth child and adolescent in Finland is overweight

Background

Globally, the prevalence of child and adolescent overweight and obesity has increased during the preceding decades leading to childhood obesity being acknowledged as one of the most significant health hazards of the 21st century. Yet, in Finland comprehensive and up-to-date data on the prevalence of overweight and obesity among children and adolescents have been lacking. The aim of this study was to examine the prevalence of overweight and obesity among 2-16-year-old children and adolescents living in Finland in 2018.

Methods

The study was based on height and weight measurements taken at child welfare clinics and school health services between 5.7.2017 and 5.4.2019 (n = 375,561). The data was collected from the Register of Primary Health Care Visits. Child and adolescent overweight and obesity were defined according to international IOTF BMI criteria (age- and sex-specific BMI cut-off points corresponding to adults' cut-off points of 25 kg/m2 for overweight and 30 kg/m2 for obesity) and reported by age group and sex.

Results

In 2018, nearly 20% of boys and girls aged 2-16 years were classified as at least overweight while the prevalence of obesity was 5% among both sexes. The prevalence of overweight in pre-school-aged children (2-6 years) was 12% in boys and 15% in girls, in primary school-aged children (7-12 years) 23% in boys and 22% in girls and in adolescents (13-16 years) 25% in boys and 23% in girls.

Conclusions

In 2018, every fifth child and adolescent in Finland was classified as either overweight or obese. The prevalence of overweight and obesity appears to increase with age in both genders.

Key messages

Childhood and adolescent overweight and obesity were comparatively common in Finland in 2018. As overweight and obesity often persist into adulthood, multi-professional interventions targeted at prevention and early detection are essential.

Adults with young children are more satisfied with their lives than other adults

Background

Limited research exists on the differences in the wellbeing of adults with young children and those without. The aim of this study was to compare the well-being of adults with and without young children.

Methods

The study is based on the FinHealth 2017 Study of a nationally representative sample on adults aged 18-50-years (n = 4764, 58% participated). Information on wellbeing was collected through self-administered questionnaires. Adults living in a household with young children (under 7-years old, n = 762) were compared to adults living in a household without young children (n = 1864). Inverse probability weights were used in the analysis to correct for the effects of non-response and different sampling probabilities.

Results

Nearly 90 % of adults with young children rated their quality of life as good or very good and were more satisfied with their family life (women 84% vs. 76%, men 87 % vs. 78%) and life achievements (women 82% vs. 69%, men 78% vs. 58%) compared to other adults. No difference was observed in satisfaction with the financial situation. Differences in the experience of psychological distress (Mental Health Inventory, MHI-5 score ≤52) were statistically insignificant. 6% of women and 7% of men with young children experienced psychological distress while the equivalent percentage of other adults was 9% in both sexes. Differences in symptoms of depression (Beck Depression Inventory, 6 item score >4) were also statistically insignificant, although the prevalence was somewhat lower for those with children (women 12% vs. 15%, men 6% vs. 12%). Adults with young children reported sufficient sleep less often compared to other adults (women 64% vs. 76%, men 67% vs. 77%).

Conclusions

Most parents of young children have a good quality of life and are satisfied with their life. Getting sufficient sleep is one of the main challenges of adults with young children.

Key messages

Adults with young children are more satisfied with their life compared to other adults. There is still a need for holistic lifestyle guidance, especially to promote mental well-being and sufficient sleep of adults with young children.

FinChildren Register: National monitoring of child and adolescent health and well-being in Finland

Background

Comprehensive and up-to-date data on child and adolescent health and well-being is essential for monitoring, service development and decision-making. Although nearly all children and adolescents in Finland attend annual health check-ups at child health clinics and school healthcare, the utilization of collected data has been limited. The objective is to produce timely and representative information on the health and well-being of children, adolescents and their families based on routinely collected register data.

Methods

Data are collected from health check-ups performed at child health clinics and school health care. Recorded data are transferred through patient information systems to the Register of Primary Health Care Visits. The data can be linked to other national registers with personal identity codes. The first phase aimed to evaluate the availability and quality of register-based data through inspection of data coverage on height and weight data of children and adolescents aged 2 to 16 years.

Results

In 2018, the coverage of height and weight data ranged from 0% to 100% between municipalities depending on age group. Results were published through an interactive map application and municipality-specific summaries by gender and age group at national and municipality levels. The data enabled reporting up-to-date results on the prevalence of child and adolescent overweight and obesity in Finland.

Conclusions

Data from health check-ups form an excellent database for monitoring child and adolescent health and well-being in Finland. The challenges of utilizing register data are mainly caused by difficulties in data transfer from patient information systems resulting in insufficient data coverage. Publishing local-level reports on data coverage as well as on the results promotes data availability and quality while enabling evaluation of actions needed for promoting the health and welfare of children and their families.

Reactions of N,N-bis(2-chloroethyl)-p-aminophenylbutyric acid (chlorambucil) with 2'-deoxyguanosine

N,N-Bis(2-chloroethyl)-p-aminophenylbutyric acid (chlorambucil, 1) was allowed to react in the presence of 2'-deoxyguanosine (16 mM) at physiological pH (cacodylic acid, 50% base), and the reactions were followed by HPLC/MS/MS techniques. Although the predominant reaction observed was chlorambucil hydrolysis, ca. 24% of 1 reacted with different heteroatoms of the nucleoside. As expected, the principal site of 2'-deoxyguanosine alkylation was N7. Alkylation of N7 caused spontaneous depurination, and N-(7-guaninylethyl)-N-hydroxyethyl-p-aminophenylbutyric acid (5) and the corresponding N7,N7-bis-adduct (6) were the major stable dGuo derivatives. Also several other adducts were detected and tentatively identified by means of MS/MS and UV. From them, the O(6-), N1-, N(2-), and O5'-derivatives can be biologically significant. Our results shed new light on DNA modifications caused by chlorambucil, which is an important chemotherapeutic drug and a known carcinogen.