A trend reversal in childhood obesity: Decline in BMI in 8-year-old boys
"A levelling off of the childhood obesity epidemic has been shown before, but we are able to demonstrate clear reduction in mean BMI and also the frequency of childhood overweight and obesity," says Maria Bygdell, researcher and PhD student at the department of internal medicine and clinical nutrition. The research is based on data from the population-based study, BMI Epidemiology Study (BEST) in Gothenburg, with detailed information from the school health care regarding the height and weight of children born from 1946 and onwards. This time, researchers chose to study boys. The idea it to conduct a corresponding study on girls. A clear decline In all, thirteen age groups were included, born at five year intervals during the period 1946-2006. Each age group studied consisted of 425 boys. When the researchers noted the trend reversal, they wanted to look into the most recent period in greater detail and therefore expanded the number of individuals in several of the y...