Overweight In Children - Percentiles | Diseases and diagnoses 2023

Overweight in childhood and adolescence

An unbalanced diet can also lead to overweight and obesity in children and adolescents. Overweight children are at increased risk of various diseases in the long term. The health consequences are essentially the same as those in adults. In addition, overweight children are at greater risk from psychosocial disorders (e.g. depression, low self-esteem)…

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When are children and adolescents overweight?

When exactly a child is considered overweight is a little more difficult to determine than it is for adults. Because the transition from a body weight that is still in the normal range and an already existing excess weight is fluid. Since there is no optimal measurement method for overweight or obesity in children, the BMI is often used as the preferred measure.

However, the reference values and upper limit values must be applied depending on age and gender in order to be able to draw conclusions in individual cases. Due to physical development, changes in adipose tissue mass to a certain extent are also normal in children.

Note You can find a BMI calculator for children and adolescents on the website of the German Obesity Society (compared with the percentiles).

Percentiles for children and teenagers

So-called age- and gender-specific percentiles are often used to determine overweight or obesity. For example, someone is overweight if the BMI of a boy or girl at the age of nine is over 20 - and thus over the 90th percentile. That means: 90 out of 100 children of this age have a BMI under 20.

Measurement data from children can be entered on the website www.wachsen.at and interpreted using percentiles (WHO-based). The tool was developed under the project management of the Medical University of Vienna in cooperation with the Pediatric Endocrinology and Diabetology Working Group (APEDÖ) of the Austrian Society for Children and Adolescent Medicine (ÖGKJ).

Note In children and adolescents, one speaks of overweight from the 90th percentile and of obesity from the 97th percentile.