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.

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.