OBJECTIVE: While the US today has the highest rates worldwide of obesity, Europe, and particularly Southern Europe, is catching up fast. The aim of this study was to report the prevalence of obesity in Greek children, aged 1-12 years.
DESIGN: A systematic review--including all studies published in English and Greek from January 2001 until December 2010 regarding childhood obesity, using the IOTF criteria--was performed. Twenty-five out of 134 published studies were finally selected, including 219,996 boys and 210,772 girls.
RESULTS: Meta-analysis revealed that 10.2% (CI 95%: 9.8-10.7%) of Greek children (1-12 years) are obese, 23.7% (CI 95%: 22.7-24.8%) are overweight and the combined prevalence of overweight and obesity is 34% (CI 95%: 32.7-35.3%). Subgroup analysis by gender showed that 11% of the boys and 9.7% of the girls were obese, while 24.1% of the boys and 23.2% of the girls were overweight. The combined prevalence of excess in body weight predominated in boys (35%), while in girls the above prevalence was 32.7%. Cumulative analysis revealed an upward trend of the phenomenon (2001-2003), followed by a stabilization (2003-2010).
CONCLUSIONS: During the decade 2001-2010, 1/10 Greek children was obese and 3/10 were overweight. The implementation of policies to reverse childhood obesity is of the utmost urgency.