Abstract
Despite current speculations about the health and fitness of children in Germany, there is a lack of representative studies simultaneously describing medical parameters and motor skills while including social factors. The medical part of the IDEFIKS-study (Interdisciplinary Evaluation of Fitness and Health in Kids in the Saarland/Germany) investigated 216 children of the 6th and 9th classes from representative secondary modern intermediate and high schools. According to the current percentiles, 18 % of the children were overweight (OW) or adipose (AD), with a clearly higher proportion among the intermediate schools. A percentage of body fat >30 % was measured in 10 % of the children. While the percentage of children with OW+AD increases among the girls from 6th to 9th classes (14 to 20 %), it decreases among the boys (22 to 15 %). 6 % of the children had blood cholesterol >5 mmol/l (193 mg/dl) with significantly increased LDL/HDL-cholesterol ratio >2.5. The LDL/HDL-cholesterol ratio differed between the group of OW+AD (2.0±0.9) and non-OW+AD (1.7±0.8; p<0.05). An elevated systolic and diastolic blood pressure was measured in 5 % (p<0.001). There was a relationship between the standardized Body-Mass-Index (BMI) and systolic blood pressure (r=0.35; p<0.001) and LDL/HDL-cholesterol ratio (r=0.22; p<0.05). The standardized Body-Mass-Index (BMI) of the children correlated weakly with the BMI of the parents (mother: r=0.19, father: r=0.21; p<0.01, respectively). In conclusion, there is a strong need for gender-specific preventive strategies taking the level of education into account.
Translated title of the contribution | Health status of children and adolescents in the Saarland - Selected results of the IDEFIKS*-study (Part 1) |
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Original language | German |
Pages (from-to) | 202-210 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Deutsche Zeitschrift fur Sportmedizin |
Volume | 55 |
Issue number | 9 |
Publication status | Published - 2004 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Gender
- Overweight
- Risk factors
- School