Underweight, overweight and obesity in children and adolescents from Minsk, Belarus in the period 2001-2008

Objective: The aim of the study is to consider the prevalence of all deviations from the body weight standard (underweight, overweight and obesity) among 4-18 years old children, adolescents and youths of Minsk, Belarus examined in the period 2001-2008. Subjects and methods: The measurements of 2969 children, teenagers and young adults carried out in the period 2001-2008 were used. Children were classified as underweight, normal weight, overweight and obese using Body Mass Index (BMI) cutoff points proposed by IOTF. Results: Underweight was recorded more often in girls (10.7%) than in boys (7.5%), differences are significant (p < 0.05). More frequent occurrence of underweight was typical for girls and boys of older age periods (11-18 years) - 11.6-14.2% and 8.9-9.6%, respectively. Overweight was found in boys and girls with the same frequency (10.9 and 10.7%, respectively). Obesity was more often observed in boys than in girls (2.3 and 1.8%). An increase in the proportion of overweight children (especially intensive in boys) was observed before the pubertal growth spurt. Conclusion: Our analysis showed a fairly low percentage of deviations from the standard body weight. The considerable variability of the data on the prevalence of overweight and obesity in children of Belarus obtained by different authors can be related both to differences in levels of living in different regions of the country and fairly rapid changes in this area due to socio-economic changes in society.