1. Relationship between childhood obesity and socio-economic status among primary school children in Costa Rica
- Author
-
Jeancarlo Cordoba, Ivannia Caravaca, Tatiana Gamboa-Gamboa, Romain Fantin, and Ingrid Gómez-Duarte
- Subjects
Costa Rica ,Pediatric Obesity ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Population ,Medicine (miscellaneous) ,Overweight ,Logistic regression ,Childhood obesity ,Body Mass Index ,Prevalence ,medicine ,Economic Status ,Humans ,Child ,education ,Socioeconomic status ,education.field_of_study ,Schools ,Nutrition and Dietetics ,Public health ,Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health ,medicine.disease ,Obesity ,Cross-Sectional Studies ,Geography ,Rural area ,medicine.symptom ,Research Paper ,Demography - Abstract
Objective:This article analyses the relationship between socio-economic status and the prevalence of overweight and obesity in the primary school population in Costa Rica.Design:A National School Weight/Height Census was disseminated across Costa Rica in 2016. The percentage of children who were overweight or obese was calculated by sex, age and socio-economic indicators (type of institution: private, public, mix; type of geographic location: rural, urban and the level of development of the district of residence: quartiles). A mixed-effects multinomial logistic regression model and mixed-effects logistic regression model were used to analyse the association between the prevalence of being overweight or obese and district socio-economic status.Setting:The survey was carried out in public and private primary schools across Costa Rica in 2016.Participants:In total, 347 366 students from 6 to 12 years were enrolled in public and private primary schools.Results:The prevalence of overweight and obesity among children was 34·0 %. Children in private schools were more likely to be overweight or obese than students in public schools (OR = 1·10 [1·07, 1·13]). Additionally, children were less likely to be overweight or obese if attending a school in a district of the lowest socio-economic quartile compared with the highest socio-economic quartile (OR = 0·79 [0·75, 0·83]) and in a rural area compared with the urban area (OR = 0·92 [0·87, 0·97]).Conclusions:Childhood obesity in Costa Rica continues to be a public health problem. Prevalence of overweight and obesity in children was associated with indicators of higher socio-economic status.
- Published
- 2021