RESEARCH ARTICLE Individual, family and env e

sit to sso In the U.S. the 2009–2010 prevalence of overweight and obesity is 31.8 % for children aged 2 to 19 years [2]. chological issues as well as orthopedic problems, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, sleep apnea, metabolic syn-Sánchez-Cruz et al. BMC Pediatrics 2014, 14:3 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2431/14/3such as gender, socio-economic position, physical1Andalusian School of Public Health (EASP), Granada, Spain Full list of author information is available at the end of the articleEurope estimates 20 % of children and adolescence to be overweight, with one third of these obese and the annual rate of increase in this prevalence is growing [3]. In Spain, the 2011 National Health Survey of 5495 children reported a combined prevalence of over-weight and obesity of 29.1 % in boys aged 2 to 17 years drome and lower quality of life [3,7-11]. Identifying the causes and modifiable factors associated with child obesity is important to be able to design effec-tive public health strategies to reverse the current obesity trends. Multiple factors, including genetic, environmental, cultural and socio-economic status may influence cor-poral weight [12-18]. Researchers of child and adoles-cent obesity have mainly focused on individual factors * Correspondence