Prevalence of obesity among students aged 6 to 12 in China: a meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: In recent years, obesity has become a major public health problem worldwide. It has been estimated that 8% of children are obese. This study evaluates the overall prevalence of obesity in primary students in recent years. METHODS: Publications from 2011 and 2015 on the obesity prevalence among primary school students aged 6 to 12 in China were retrieved from the databases PubMed and Wanfang Data. Obesity was defined using the International Obesity Task Force standard body mass index cutoff points established for children. MetaAnalyst 3.13 software was used to calculate the total prevalence of obesity among primary school students in recent years. RESULTS: After evaluation of the quality of the articles, 14 papers were finally included in our study. The pooled prevalence of obesity in students aged 6 to 12 is 10.2% (95% CI: 7.1–14.6%). CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that obesity is prevalent in students aged 6 to 12 in China. We believe that appropriate measures should be taken to control this situation.