Correlates of childhood obesity in Athens, Greece

Objective: Childhood obesity is a growing public health problem. We have examined the association between sociodemographic profile and eating and physical activity patterns with overweight among primary-school students in Athens, Greece. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: Eleven primary schools in the greater Athens area, Greece. Subjects: A total of 633 children aged 10-12 years (50% boys, 50% girls) were interviewed in person during spring 2003. Multivariate logistic regression was used to investigate the association between eating and physical activity patterns and overweight (>= 85th sex- and age-specific BMI centile). Results are presented as odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals. Results: Overweight was more common among girls than among boys (OR = 1.73; 95% CI 1.11, 2.69) and substantially less common among children born outside Greece (OR = 0.46; 95% CI 0.22, 0.95). Reported physical activity (per 1.5h per day) was unrelated to overweight (OR = 0.97; 95% CI 0.85, 1.12) but patent physical inactivity, operationalised as time spent watching television or working/playing with the computer (per 1.5h per day) was a highly significant predictor of overweight (OR = 0.61;95% CI 0.48, 0.76). Conclusions: The principal factor underlying overweight among children in Athens appears to be the extended inactivity imposed by modern childhood lifestyles. An intriguing finding is that spreading a given energy intake over several eating occasions was inversely associated with the likelihood of childhood obesity.