Effects of the nutrition transition in Argentinean children and adolescents: a narrative review of overweight and obesity prevalence between 2000 and 2021

LOMAGLIO, DELIA BEATRIZ; PACHECO AGÜERO, ROSARIO ELIZABETH

Journal of Public Health and Emergency

AMEGROUP

Lugar: Estados Unidos ; Año: 2022 vol. 6 p. 1 - 14

Background and Objective: Changes in body composition as a consequence of the nutritional transition result in an increasing trend of overweight and obesity in children and adolescents in Argentina. This shift represents an important risk factor for cardiometabolic diseases, becoming a challenging problem of great dimensions for public health. The aim of this review is to estimate the overweight and obesity prevalence of Argentine children and adolescents in the last 20 years.Methods: We conducted a narrative review of articles published between January 2000 and December 2021, reporting the prevalence of overweight and obesity in children and adolescents. Academic databases PubMed, Scielo, Lilacs, and Scholar were used, in addition to consultations to the national nutrition surveys. For the analysis, data were grouped in two periods: 2000?2011 and 2012?2021. We obtained % prevalence (95% confidence interval) of overweight, obesity, and excess weight, by sex, period, geographic region, and age group. Proportional differences were calculated using the chi-square test.Key Content and Findings: Thirty studies were analyzed (n=155,429). The prevalence of excess weight (overweight + obesity) had significant differences by sex (P=0.0008), by period (P