DT 15/20 - Valoración del sobrepeso y la obesidad en niños pequeños con datos longitudinales. Nota metodológica en base a la ENDIS

Unlike what happens with underweight indicators, there is no single internationally validated indicator for evaluating overweight and obesity in children. Additionally, in the case of children older than 5 years, there is also no consensus on the cut-off points that determine that a child is overweight or obese. This methodological note presents a brief discussion on the indicators available in the Nutrition, Child Development and Health Survey (ENDIS) for the assessment of overweight and obesity in children. The different alternatives used at the clinical and population level are described and the sensitivity of the results for the Uruguayan case is analyzed. The change in the indicators of excess body mass does not introduce major variations in the evolution of the incidence of the variables of interest. However, the use of age-differentiated thresholds generates discrete jumps in the prevalence of overweight and obesity, which could lead to inferring a significant increase in overweight and obesity over time that is the product of the threshold change.