BMJ  2006;332 (13 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7550.0-b

Adolescent obesity is established in childhood

Persistent obesity in adolescents may be established well before the age of 11. Wardle and colleagues (p 1130) recruited more than 5800 pupils aged 11-12 years from 36 London schools and found 25% to be overweight or obese. Over the five years of follow-up, the prevalence of obesity increased at the expense of overweight, but the proportion of pupils with a body mass index within the healthy range stayed the same. Efforts to prevent obesity should therefore be targeted in the early years, say the authors.

Credit: TOM GANNAM/AP/EMPICS

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Article

Development of adiposity in adolescence: five year longitudinal study of an ethnically and socioeconomically diverse sample of young people in Britain

Jane Wardle, Naomi Henning Brodersen, Tim J Cole, Martin J Jarvis, and David R Boniface
BMJ 2006 332: 1130-1135. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]