From Childhood to Adolescence: Long-Term Trends in Severe Obesity in German Youth (2002-2023).

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Research on severe obesity (SO) is scarce and often contradictory. As higher weight status persists into adulthood, we aimed to analyze long-term trends in the prevalence of SO in children and adolescents in Germany using a large real-world data set. Furthermore, we analyzed subgroup differences and assessed how the COVID-19 pandemic affected weight status.

Methods

We analyzed data from the CrescNet auxological network, including 1,495,401 clinical visits by 4- to 16-year-old children (2002-2023). Weight trends were examined with a focus on SO using logistic regression, stratified by sex and age. Effects are reported as odds ratio per 5 years (OR5) pre-pandemic and as OR for consecutive years during the pandemic. Quantile regression assessed trends of the 50th,

SUBMITTER: Berisha A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12185109 | biostudies-literature | 2025 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature