[Overweight among children in Navarra (Spain) and its impact on adolescence]

To estimate the prevalence of excess body fat in a cohort of children aged 2 to 14 years, and calculate the risk of overweight during adolescence when it was present in previous years.

This was a retrospective study and review of clinical records including weight, height and body mass index in a cohort of 840 children at ages 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 y 14 years. The excess of body fat was calculated following the International Obesity Task Force criteria and showing the odds ratio of having overweight at age 14 years when it was present in any previous year.

The prevalence of overweight at age 2 was 8.5%, increased progressively to 32.6% at age 8, and then decreased to 22.5% at age 14. The prevalence of overweight was significantly higher (p<0.05) in females at age 2 and 3 years and lower (p<0.05) at age 12 and 14 with respect to males. The probability of presenting overweight/obesity in adolescence was 15 times higher when overweight was present at age 8.

This study show that overweight at any paediatric age, especially school age, implies a high risk of overweight/obesity in adolescence.