Gender Difference and Changes in the Prevalence of Obesity Over Time in Children Under 12 Years Old: A Meta-analysis

Evaluating changes over time for the odds of developing obesity according to sex.

PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, and China National Knowledge Database were searched for relevant studies. Full-text studies evaluating the influence of sex on obesity were analyzed. R 3.4.3 was used to assess the impact of results in the selected studies, calculated pooled prevalence and odds ratio (OR) with their respective 95% confidence intervals (CIs). A p<0.10 and I2>50% indicated high heterogeneity, and the random-effects model was used, otherwise, the fixed-effects model was used.

The included studies reported the prevalence of obesity in children covering 1987-2017. The pooled prevalence of obesity in boy and girl groups were 0.13 (95% CI: 0.08, 0.20) and 0.10 (95% CI: 0.07, 0.13). In the analysis of the boy group, the pooled OR in earlier time vs. recent time was 0.98 (95% CI: 0.76, 1.26). The estimated OR for girls in earlier vs. recent time was 1.01 (95% CI: 0.80, 1.28). In the analysis of studies with follow-up period ≥10 years, the pooled OR for obesity in earlier vs. recent time period was 0.99 (95% CI: 0.76, 1.30). For those with follow-up period <10 years, the pooled OR in earlier vs. recent time period was 0.94 (95% CI: 0.57, 1.54).

Comprehensive measures are required to control obesity among children, albeit with non-significant gender difference and time trend for obesity rates in children.