Overweight and childhood obesity decrease in Portugal but still affects 30% of children – Observer
The prevalence of childhood weight and obesity dropped in all regions of the country between 2008 and 2019, but this problem still affects one in three children in Portugal, according to a study released this Tuesday.
During this period, there was a reduction of 8.2 percentage points in the prevalence of weight in children aged six to eight years (from 37.9% in 2008 to 29.7% in 2019) and of 3.3% in childhood obesity (from 15.3% to 11.9%, respectively), according to the COSI Portugal study, a child nutrition surveillance system integrated in the WHO/Europe Child Obesity Surveillance Initiative study, coordinated by the National Health Institute Doutor Ricardo Jorge ( INSA).
The latest data from the 5th round of COSI, which confirms the trend of the decrease in the prevalence of this problem in Portugal, they were invited to the first “Conference of the Collaborative Center of the World Health Organization on Child Nutrition and Obesity”, which is taking place at INSA, in Lisbon, and which aims to mark five years of collaboration between the Institute and the WHO.
“Since 2008 we have been showing an inverted trend in the prevalence of overweight and childhood obesity and obesity in all regions”, told the agency Lusa Ana Rito, INSA researcher and coordinator of the study that involves 44 countries and studies more than half a million of children every three years.
Ana Rito noted that in the first round of the study in 2008, Portugal was the second country with the highest prevalence of childhood weight and obesity and now “it’s exactly on the European average”.
“It was absolutely positive progress. and of course the country is to be congratulated, but still with one in three children suffering from this problem of overweight “which can quickly progress to obesity, he warned.
According to the study, the Azores (35.9%), Madeira (31.7%) and the North (31.3%) were the regions with the highest prevalence of weight and the Algarve the lowest (21.8%).
The highest prevalences of childhood obesity were observed in the North (12.3%), Center (13.4%), Madeira (13.7%) and Azores (17.9%) and in the smallest regions in Alentejo (9 , 6%).
The prevalence of overweight and childhood obesity is more prevalent in boys (29.6% – 13.2%) than in girls (29.7% – 10.6%), respectively.
As seen in previous rounds, the prevalence of childhood obesity increases with age, reaching 15.7% of 8-year-olds, including 4.9% severely obese, and 10.7% of 6-year-olds, 2.6% of which are severely obese.
Regarding the prevalence of underweight, the data indicate that “it has remained without expression and constant in the last eight years, despite the serious economic crisis experienced in Portugal in this decade”.
The study claims that “positive evolution [de Portugal], and still infrequent in other international regions, may result from various initiatives carried out by the Portuguese State, by professionals from the National Health Service and parties in this matter”.
COSI Portugal involved 8,845 children from 228 schools in the 1st Cycle of Basic Education, in the 2018/2019 school year, the largest sample of all stages so far.
More than 8,000 Portuguese families were invited to participate in this study, which has served for the development of national and regional policies, said Ana Rito, exemplifying that a fee applied to soft drinks was supported by COSI data that make “a big picture” of em. variables at the level of child food consumption, physical activity practice and other variables related to the family and school environment.