Obesity and overweight among children, diagnostic criteria and statistics of prevalence

Abstract

Objective: to conduct an analysis and synthesis of scientific literature and modern recommendations regarding the criteria for diagnosing overweight and obesity in children, international and national statistical databaseson the prevalence of overweight among children,legalactson the diagnosis of obesity and the detection of overweight in children in Ukraine. Methods. bibliosemantic, epidemiological, contentanalysis. Results. The international statistical data bases,results of the cross-national studies of WHO, current recommendations and strategies of prevention of obesity of children have been studied. According to the data of the official branch statistics the current scope of spreading of obesity among children’s population of Ukraine. The analysis of the normative documents regulating the order of organization and main components of the obligatory preventive medical examinations of children in Ukraine, the scheme of their periodicity, criteria of evaluation of physical development of children and record of results of medical examination of a child with evaluation of his/ her physical condition have been conducted. Figured out the disadvantages of the existing system of prevention of obesity of children: discrepancies between branchstandardsthatregulateapproachestotheevaluationofharmonyofphysicaldevelopmentofachildanddocumentsthatregulatestoringofresultsofthepreventivemedicalexaminations of children which is the reason for absence of statistics of obesity of children in Ukraine; lowlevel of diagnostics of obesity of children and identification of the excessbody weight that is conditioned by the lowlevel of knowledge a mongprimary medical caredoctors, providing medical careto children,of indicators of excess body weight of children. Conclusions. A conceptual solution to this problem can be achieved by organizing a continuous, systematic process of detection and registration of children with overweight and obesity, analysis of the environment where the child is from the standpoint of social characteristics and behavioral characteristics.