WORLD / Health
Study: Young girls more likely to be fat
(AP)
Updated: 2007-05-10 15:45
STOCKHOLM, Sweden - As every Western nation struggles with child obesity,
the Swedes are puzzled by an unusual blip in the data: Why are little
girls more likely to be fat than little boys?
A recent study by researchers at Sweden's Uppsala University showed that
today's 4-year-old girls were six times as likely to be obese compared to
20 years ago - a bigger jump than among boys.
"This indicates that there is a relatively recent change in our
lifestyles that is behind this," said Ulf Holmback, the lead researcher
for the study published in the April issue of Acta Paediatrica. "But it's
difficult to say what that is."
The weight increase itself was expected - Swedes, along with most other
Europeans, have been getting heavier.
But obesity experts are scratching their heads over the gender difference
that emerges in obesity rates. In 1982, just 1 percent of all 4-year-olds
were deemed obese. By 2002, 2 percent of the boys that age were obese,
but 6 percent of the girls were. The discrepancy was similar for
10-year-olds.
An analysis of children who are overweight - not obese - the percentage
of overweight 4-year-olds has roughly doubled to 20 percent for girls and
18 percent for boys during the same 20-year period. (Generally, a child
42 inches tall weighing 50 pounds would be considered obese; the same
child weighing 45 pounds would be considered overweight.)
"It's hard to come up with a smart explanation for this," said Carl-Erik
Flodmark, head of the child obesity center at Malmo University Hospital.
"One biological explanation could be that boys are more active, and when
the calorie load increases, maybe girls are more affected."
Flodmark, considered one of Europe's experts on childhood obesity, said
the research could be skewed because it studied children from just one
part of Sweden. But, he said, other studies also reveal the gender
difference in obesity rates for that age group.
According to data compiled by the International Association for the Study
of Obesity, IASO, the situation seems unique to Sweden.
The IASO has compiled surveys from all European Union countries, and
typically the differences in the obesity rates for boys and girls are
very small. In countries that have large gender discrepancies among
children - such as Greece and Estonia - it is the boys who have higher
rates of being overweight.
And among adults across Europe, women generally are fitter than men.
Since 1980, when Swedes were among of the slimmest of Western
nationalities, obesity among adults has doubled from 5 percent to 10
percent by 2005 in both sexes, according to Sweden's national statistics
agency. However, roughly half the men are overweight compared to 36
percent of the women.
That is still far lower than the United States, where recent government
figures show 71 percent of men are overweight, and two-thirds of women
are. About one-third of the US adult population is obese.
Among EU nations, Sweden is in the middle, with Germany, Greece and the
Czech Republic the most overweight, according to the IASO.
The IASO's Neville Rigby said Sweden is hardly alone in having heavier
children.
"Worldwide, in every country, we're beginning to see changes taking
place, sometimes quite rapidly," Rigby said.
Holmback and other researchers hope to eventually sort out why Swedish
girls are getting heavier than boys. Both he and Flodmark said it is
crucial to help girls who are obese because they suffer more under the
pressure of modern beauty ideals.
"It doesn't matter as much for boys if they are obese," Flodmark said.
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