Prevalence and influencing factors of central obesity among children and adolescents aged 7~17 years in China

Objective To analyze and describe central obesity and its influencing factors in Chinese children and adolescents aged 7-17 years.Methods In this study, 59 019 children and adolescents aged 7-17 years from 275 surveillance sites in 31 provinces ( autonomous regions and municipalities) in mainland China were selected using a multi-stage stratified cluster sampling method based on the China Nutrition and Health Surveillance ( 2015-2017 ). The cut-off value of high waist circumference for children and adolescents aged 7-18 years was used to determine central obesity, and the results were weighted and adjusted by using the sixth census data released by the National Bureau of Statistics. The Rao-Scott chi-square test was used for statistical inference, and multivariate logistic regression was used to analyze the influencing factors.Results The prevalence of central obesity among Chinese children and adolescents was 14.5 % during 2016-2017. There were significant differences in the prevalence of central obesity among different age, gender, parental education level, place of residence, BMI and other characteristics ( P < 0.05 ). Logistic regression analysis showed that age, girls, living in urban or central areas, overweight and obesity, second-hand smoke exposure, sleep time < 8h / d, and no snack intake were risk factors for central obesity.Conclusions The prevalence of central obesity in children and adolescents in China is high. Gender, age, areas, region, BMI, second-hand smoke exposure, sleep time and snack frequency are all related to the risk of central obesity. It is very important to formulate targeted preventive interventions for public health in China.