Paper

Prevalence of overweight and obesity in British children: cohort study

BMJ 1999; 319 doi: 10.1136/bmj.319.7216.1039 (Published 16 October 1999)
Cite this as: BMJ 1999;319:1039.1
  1. John J Reilly, senior lecturer (jjr2y@clinmed.gla.ac.uk)a,
  2. Ahmad R Dorosty, research studenta,
  3. Pauline M Emmett, nutritionistb
  1. a University of Glasgow Department of Human Nutrition, Yorkhill Hospitals, Glasgow G3 8SJ
  2. b ALSPAC Study Team, Unit of Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology, Institute of Child Health, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TH
  1. Correspondence to: Dr Reilly
  • Accepted 29 July 1999

Estimates of the prevalence of obesity among children are necessary so that the need for preventive measures can be assessed, secular trends monitored, and high risk population groups identified.1 The aim of this study was therefore to provide current estimates of the prevalence of obesity among British children.

Subjects, methods, and results

Subjects consisted of a birth cohort randomly selected from a larger geographically defined total population cohort born in the Bristol-Avon area in 1991-2. The cohort has been described elsewhere2 and is broadly representative of children in the United Kingdom. Height (to 0.1 cm, measured with a Leicester height meter) and weight in underwear (to 0.1 kg, measured with Seca scales) were measured in children at 24, 49 and 61 months of age.

There is a consensus that childhood obesity should be defined by using the body mass index (weight (kg)/(height (m))2),1 3 a simple proxy for body fatness that is …

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