Korean J Epidemiol.  2006 Dec;28(2):189-198.

Trend of the Anthropometric Indices Among Adolescents in a Urban and a Rural Area Over the Period 1996~2005

• Park S
• Ko M
• Kim SA
• Kim MK
• Cho SH
• Choi BY

Abstract

This study investigated the secular trend of anthropometric parameters of 2,153 high school students in one urban and one rural area in Korea. The cross-sectional data was collected in 1996 and 2005 in Seoul and Gyung-gi province. As a result, the height of boys has increased by 2cm, whereas the weight has increased by 6.3kg from 1996 to 2005. By contrast, those parameters, including height or weight, did not change in girls. The prevalence of obesity has been more than doubled from 9.3% in 1996 to 20.5% in 2005 in boys; while that of girls was almost same for the same period (1998, 11.1%; 2005, 11.4%). In particular, the greater increase of obesity among boys was found in urban, which implicates the importance of environmental factor in determining weight gains among adolescents. This result emphasizes that the tailored intervention is strongly warranted, in particular among boys residing in urban area.

Keyword

Authropometry; Adolescent; Trend; rural and urban aea

MeSH Terms

Adolescent*
Female
Humans
Korea
Obesity
Prevalence
Seoul
Weight Gain