High prevalence of overweight/obesity in London students - (14/06/06)
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Among a socioeconomically and ethnically diverse sample of 5863 London students, aged 11-12 years at baseline, the combined prevalence of obesity and overweight reached 25%, with higher rates in girls (29%), students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds (31%) and black girls (38%). Over the 5-year follow up, the combined prevalence of overweight or obesity did not increase, although the prevalence of obesity increased at the expense of the prevalence of overweight, suggesting that (1) BMI kept rising within the subgroup of students with unhealthy body weights, and (2) only few obese or overweight adolescents regained healthy weights once BMI was elevated by the age of 11-12 years .
