Prevalence of overweight and obesity in urban and semi-urban Jordanian children aged 3-6 years

Objectives   To show the prevalence of overweight and obesity among the Jordanian urban and semi-urban children; to compare their body mass index (BMI) with the international standards of BMI.
Methods   We measured 1695 healthy children (842 boys and 853 girls) between 3 and 6 years for height, weight and mid upper arm circumference. BMI was calculated and transformed into percentiles. Children were divided into boys and girls.
Results   The mean and SD values of BMI observed in our study were 16.69 ± 4.9 kg/m² for boys and 16.82 ± 4.77 kg/m² for girls aged 3–6 years. The prevalence of obesity and overweight among boys was 20.8% and 3.8% respectively and among girls was 19.1% and 7.2% respectively. In total, 48.0% of boys and 38.1% of girls were of healthy weight.
Conclusions   The mean BMI observed in our study's children aged 3–6 years was higher than the expected 50th percentile of the (World Health Organization/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) reference values for a similar age range but, it was equivalent to the 75th percentile values. Obesity was more frequent than overweight among boys and girls aged 3–6 years.