Overweight and obesity among Vietnamese school-aged children: National prevalence estimates based on the World Health Organization and International Obesity Task Force definition

BACKGROUND: Overweight and obesity is a severe global health issue in both developed and developing nations. This study aims to estimate the national prevalence of overweight and obesity among school-aged children in Vietnam. METHOD: We conducted a national cross-sectional study on 2788 children aged from 11–14 years old from September to November 2018. We applied the WHO 2007 and IOTF criteria to estimate the prevalence of overweight and obesity among participants. Poison regression analysis with cluster sampling adjustment was employed to assess associated factors with obesity and overweight. Metadata on sociodemographic characteristics, physical measurements, and lifestyle behaviors were also extracted to investigate these factors in association with overweight and obesity prevalence. RESULTS: The prevalences of overweight and obesity in Vietnamese children were 17.4% and 8.6%, respectively by WHO Z-score criteria, and 17.1% and 5.4%, according to the IOTF reference. Using WHO Z-score yielded a higher prevalence of obesity than the IOTF and CDC criteria of all ages and both sexes. The proportions of overweight and obesity were substantially higher among boys than girls across ages. Parental BMI was shown to be a significant factor associated with overweight/obesity status in both girls and boys. Only for boys, age (PR = 0.83, 95% CI 0.76–0.90) and belonging to ethnic minorities (PR = 0.43, 95% CI 0.24–0.76) were significant risk factors for overweight/obesity. CONCLUSION: Our findings indicate a high prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity in Vietnam, especially in boys.