Letters
Metabolic diseases Child health
Volume 187 - Issue 5

Overweight and obesity from childhood to adulthood: a follow-up of participants in the 1985 Australian Schools Health and Fitness Survey

Authors:  Alison J Venn, Russell J Thomson, Michael D Schmidt, Verity J Cleland, Beverley A Curry, Hanni C Gennat and Terence Dwyer

Med J Aust 2007; 187 (5): 314-315. || doi: 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2007.tb01254.x
Published online: 3 September 2007
Download PDF (437 KB)
Share: Share on Blue Sky Share on Facebook Share on LinkedIn Share by email

In reply: Allman-Farinelli et al make an important point about the influence of age, survey period and cohort effects on the prevalence of overweight and obesity. While age and cohort effects could not be clearly separated in the 1985 Australian Schools Health and Fitness Survey, the prevalence of overweight and obesity increased with age in 7–15-year-olds.1 Our data collected from 4571 of the individuals in that survey at follow-up about 20 years later also showed an increase in the prevalence of overweight and obesity with age, although these findings were not presented in our report.2

In the Box, we show the distribution of body mass index (BMI) values for men and women in three age groups (24–27 years, 28–30 years and 31–34 years). Mean BMI values across the age groups were 25.2 kg/m2, 25.6 kg/m2, and 26.5 kg/m2 in men and 23.5 kg/m2, 24.2 kg/m2, and 24.6 kg/m2 in women. The prevalence of obesity (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2) increased with increasing age as follows:

Distribution of body mass index values for men and women in three different age groups*

* 24–27 years, 757 men and 854 women; 28–30 years, 767 men and 807 women; and 31–34 years, 673 men and 691 women in the 20-year follow-up of the 1985 Australian Schools Health and Fitness Survey.

View this article on Wiley Online Library

More like this

View more