TY - JOUR A2 - Chagnon, Yvon AU - Wamba, Ponce Cedric Fouejeu AU - Enyong Oben, Julius AU - Cianflone, Katherine PY - 2013 DA - 2013/06/19 TI - Prevalence of Overweight, Obesity, and Thinness in Cameroon Urban Children and Adolescents SP - 737592 VL - 2013 AB - Objective. This study examined the prevalence of thinness, overweight, and obesity in Cameroon children ranging from 8 to 15 years old using several published references as evaluation tools. Methods. A stratified sample was used with eleven schools randomly selected, and data from 2689 children (52.2% girls) ranging from 8 to 15 years were analyzed. Weight and height were recorded and BMI was calculated. BMI cutoffs used to define nutritional status grades included two international and three national published indices which were compared to our database-derived cutoffs. Results. A prevalence of 9.5% thinness and 12.4% overweight including 1.9% obesity according to international references was detected. A 2.2% low-weight-for-age, 5.7% low-height-for-age, and 5.2% low-weight-for-height were identified. Overall, there were significant differences using calculations based on our database versus published reference values and between boys versus girls. Conclusions. This study demonstrates that prevalence of thinness, overweight, and obesity is similar to that of other leading-emerging countries reported within the last decade, yet it is still lower than prevalence in developed countries. Ethnic background and social environment have impact on prevalences, highlighting the importance of evaluating the Cameroon population based on locally derived database. SN - 2090-0708 UR - https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/737592 DO - 10.1155/2013/737592 JF - Journal of Obesity PB - Hindawi Publishing Corporation KW - ER -