Twenty to 30 percent more young children may be
overweight than previously thought according to
new growth standards, the
World Health Organization (WHO) said.
The U.N. agency said it
hoped parents and pediatricians would begin applying
its new guidelines -- which for the first time lay
down optimal body mass index charts -- to halt "the
increasing epidemic of childhood obesity."
The standards also aim to help identify malnourished
youngsters, which it said was an underestimated
problem.
The WHO -- which has declared war on poor diets
blamed for rising obesity -- has estimated that
at least 20 million children under five years and
one billion adults worldwide are overweight. Another
170 million children are underweight, three million
of whom die each year as a result of malnutrition.
"We now have a much more precise tool to monitor
child growth and identify both under-nutrition and
over nutrition," Denise Costa Coitinho, director
of WHO's department of nutrition for health and
development, told a news briefing.
"This has life-long consequences because chronic
diseases in later life like diabetes and cardiovascular
diseases can be largely prevented with a good start
in life," she added.
The WHO's new standards resulted from a nearly
10-year study which found that a child's growth
is influenced more by environmental factors than
genetics up to the age of five.
Mercedes de Onis, who coordinated the study, said
that the new standards were "substantially different"
from the 1977 charts established by the U.S. National
Health Center Statistics, used by more than 100
countries.
She said that the WHO study showed there was a
"range of 20 to 30 percent higher prevalence of
overweightness" when compared with that U.S. standard.
This varied according to the country, and child's
age group and sex.
To compile the global study, researchers tracked
more than 8,000 children in Brazil, Ghana, India,
Norway, Oman, and the United States from birth to
age five, measuring them 21 times.
The new WHO growth charts include universal guidance
for parents and health workers on healthy ranges
of weight-for-age, height-for-age, and weight-for-height.
