Secular trends in cardiovascular fitness and overweight in Danish third grade school children. Danish substudy of the European Youth Heart Study.
Involverte ansatteMøller NC, Wedderkopp N, P.L Kristensen,
Andersen LB, Froberg K.
In press: Scand J Med Sci Sports.
BeskrivelseStudy objective: To examine the secular trends in cardio-respiratory fitness (CF) and overweight in Danish children. Trends were analysed overall and across socio-economic status (SES) from two cross sectional studies conducted in 1997-98 and 2003-04, respectively.
Participants were third grade school children from the Danish community of Odense.
The children were randomly sampled from schools stratified according to location and socioeconomic character of its uptake area, and invited to participate. In the study in 1997-98, 589 children participated and in 2003-04, 458 children participated.
Significant secular trends were observed in girls overall who had lower CF in 2003-
04 compared to the girls in 1997-98. When looking at the two samples across socio-economic gradients, CF had improved significantly in 2003-04 compared to 1997-98 in boys coming from families with white-collar education.
Body mass index (BMI) had increased significantly in boys from blue-collar families, and borderline significant lower odds for having low CF were observed during the same period of time in boys overall, and in white-collar boys. Significant higher odds for being overweight in 2003-04 compared to 1997-98 were found in girls coming from blue-collar families.
Conclusion: In general results showed more unfavourable secular trends between 1997-98 and 2003-04 in children coming from families with blue-collar education. Trying to describe secular trends in CF and overweight/BMI overall without any regard to SES could disguise social caused differences, potentially leading to non-adequate conclusions.