Public Health Nutrition: 11(9), 940–945 doi:10.1017/S1368980008002462 Correlates of childhood obesity in Athens, Greece

Objective: Childhood obesity is a growing public health problem. We have examined the association between sociodemographic profile and eating and physical activity patterns with overweight among primary-school students in Athens, Greece. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: Eleven primary schools in the greater Athens area, Greece. Subjects: A total of 633 children aged 10–12 years (50 % boys, 50 % girls) were interviewed in person during spring 2003. Multivariate logistic regression was used to investigate the association between eating and physical activity patterns and overweight ($85th sex- and age-specific BMI centile). Results are presented as odds ratios and 95 % confidence intervals. Results: Overweight was more common among girls than among boys (OR5 1?73; 95 % CI 1?11, 2?69) and substantially less common among children born outside Greece (OR5 0?46; 95 % CI 0?22, 0?95). Reported physical activity (per 1?5 h per day) was unrelated to overweight (OR50?97; 95 % CI 0?85, 1?12) but patent physical inactivity, operationalised as time spent watching television or working/playing with the computer (per 1?5h per day) was a highly significant predictor of overweight (OR51?20; 95 % CI 1?05, 1?36). Composition of diet was unrelated to overweight but the daily number of eating occasions, controlling for total energy intake, was significantly inversely associated with overweight (OR50?61; 95 % CI 0?48, 0?76). Conclusions: The principal factor underlying overweight among children in Athens appears to be the extended inactivity imposed by modern childhood lifestyles. An intriguing finding is that spreading a given energy intake over several eating occasions was inversely associated with the likelihood of childhood obesity