• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.405-413
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• 2003

Purpose: This study was performed to investigate effects of behavior modification on obesity index, skinfold thickness, body fat, serum lipids, serum leptin in obese elementary school children. Method: Forty seven students were selected from two elementary schools. Twenty four children in one school were assigned to experimental group and twenty three children in another school were assigned to control group. Experimental group was received 60～70 minutes of behavior modification once a week for 8 weeks. Result: Obesity index of the experimental group was significantly decreased after behavior modification. But there was no significant difference between two groups. The increase of skin fold thickness was significantly low in the experimental group compared to the control group. Percentage of body fat and fat mass were significantly decreased in the experimental group. Fat free mass was significantly increased in the experimental group. HDL-C, triglyceride and serum leptin between the experimental group and control group showed no significant difference. Conclusion: These results indicate that behavior modification is effective in decreasing percentage of body fat and fat mass, in less increasing skinfold thickness and in increasing fat free mass. In conclusion, behavior modification can be used as effective strategy for managing obesity in elementary school children.

• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.483-491
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• 2021

Purpose: Obesity has become a very significant health problem in childhood. Fructose taken in an uncontrolled manner and consumed in excessive amounts is rapidly metabolized in the body and gets converted into fatty acids. This single center prospective case-control study aims to investigate the relationship between fructose consumption and obesity and the role of fructose consumption in development of atherosclerotic diseases. Methods: A total of 40 obese and 40 healthy children who were of similar ages (between 8 and 18 years) and sexes were included in the study. In the patient and control groups, the urine fructose levels, as well as the levels of oxidized low-density lipoprotein (LDL), small dense LDL, Apolipoprotein A and Apolipoprotein B values, which have been shown to play a role in development of atherosclerotic diseases, were measured. Results: The levels of oxidized LDL and small dense LDL and the ratio of Apolipoprotein A/Apolipoprotein B were found to be significantly higher in the patient group. Conclusion: We found that urinary fructose levels were higher in the obese children than the healthy children. Our results suggest that overconsumption of fructose in children triggers atherogenic diseases by increasing the levels of small dense LDL and oxidized LDL and the ratio of Apolipoprotein B/Apolipoprotein A.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.63 no.12
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• pp.477-482
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• 2020

The childhood obesity pandemic has emerged as an important public health problem in many countries. Obese children are likely to become obese adults, and adult obesity is associated with an increased risk of morbidity. Therefore, controlling the childhood obesity epidemic has become a top public health priority worldwide. The current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic may significantly impede this important mission and constitute an unprecedented tragedy in the global battle against childhood obesity. This manuscript presents evidence that the COVID-19 pandemic will aggravate the childhood obesity epidemic and lead to significant weight gain in school children by creating an unprecedented obesogenic environment. Within the last few months, many countries took uncompromising measures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including school closures and quarantine. While these steps are often necessary to ensure infection control, they may have a significant negative effect on children's mental and physical health. Physical, nutritional, and psychosocial factors that promote obesity in children during this special situation complementarily contribute to an unprecedented obesogenic environment. Large-scale quarantine and home confinement will impose new and unfamiliar stressors on children, thereby worsening the childhood obesity epidemic. Most importantly, adverse childhood events resulting from a predicted increase in domestic violence within the next few months will significantly contribute to this concern. The scenario presented in this review is of paramount public health importance and must be considered during future pandemic planning. Involved stakeholders, including governments, schools, and families, must make all possible efforts to minimize the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on childhood obesity.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.79-89
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• 1994

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between body fat and risk factors of chronic diseases in obese children and eventually to contribute to the prevention and treatment of childhood obesity. Anthropometric parameters such as height, weight, skinfold thickness, circumferences, body fat content were measured in 55 obese subjects of age 5-20. Blood pressure, serum components, daily food intakes were also considered. The average age of the subjects was 12.5$\pm$3.3yrs and the mean obesity index was 64.7$\pm$21.3%. The average percentage of body fat was 35.6$\pm$5.4% and the mean weight of lean body mass was 45.3$\pm$13.9kg. Mean total muscle weight of the subjects was estimated to be 34.11$\pm$1.3kg. The mean systolic and diastolic blood pressures of the obese were 134.8$\pm$15.8mmHg and 69.6$\pm$11.6mgHg respectively. The concentrations fo serum triglyceride, total cholersterol, HDL-cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol were estimated to be 246.0$\pm$136.4mg/dl, 257.0$\pm$54.3mg/dl, 48.2$\pm$13.1mg/dl and 158.9$\pm$53.5mg/이 respectively. The concentrations of serum GOT and GPT were 34.6$\pm$17.1U/L and 24.7$\pm$15.3U/L. The mean content of uric acid is serum was 6.2$\pm$1.9mg/dl. Of these 55 children, 82% has hyperlipidemia, 26% was abnormal liver function and 24% was hyperuricemia. One patient was diabetic. Eighty seven% of them have developed more than one complications.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.496-503
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• 1999

This study was conducted to investigate the relationship among Rohrer index, and nutritional intake and biochemical status. We examined physical status, dietary intakes, serum cholesterol, blood pressure and other biochemical of children in Taejon. Thin survey was carried out in October, 1995. The subjects were 362 children, aged from 6 to 11 years old. The results were summarized as follows. By Rohrer index, 4.5% of the subjects were lean, 70.2% were normal, 17.0% were overweight and 8.6% were obese. Systolic and diastolic blood pressures of the subjects were 111.73 and 69.88mmHg, respectively. The systolic blood pressure of obese subjects(119.93mmHg) was higher than any other groups. Total cholesterol level was 160.87mg/dl, cholesterol levels in each group were not significantly different. Hemoglobin level of total subjects was 13.10mg/dl, especially hemoglobin levels of 11 year-old girls was lower than that of the same aged boys suggesting that the girls should be supplied with more protein, iron and other nutrients. Energy and protein intakes wee 86.6% and 94.5% of RDA, respectively. The nutrients above the RDA were only two, phosphorus and-vitamin C. The intakes of iron, zinc and vitamin A were lower than 50% of the RDA's. The levels of zinc and niacin were highest in obese group than any other groups. The subjects in overweight and obese groups had eaten more calories from snack and less calories from breakfast than other groups. Rohrer index was correlated with cholesterol, systolic blood pressure and creatinine levels.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.65 no.1
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• pp.35-46
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• 2022

Background: The growing prevalence of overweight and/or obese children is an important public health problem in both developed and developing countries. Although the association of obesity between parents and their children is well known, its underlying mechanisms are not well established. Purpose: This meta-analysis examined parent-child (PC) relationships in obesity and identified factors such as world region and country income level that may influence this relationship. Methods: We identified all related studies published between January 1, 2015 and May 31, 2020 by conducting a literature search using the MeSH terms "obesity," "overweight," "body mass index," "parent," "child," "associate," and "relate" in the PubMed database in English. Results: The meta-analysis of 23 studies that reported an odds ratio (OR) for parent and child obesity associations found a significant association between parents and children who were overweight or obese (pooled OR, 1.97; 95% confidence interval, 1.85-2.10). A meta-regression analysis was used to examine the sources of interstudy heterogeneity. The association between parent and child obesity was higher in Asia than in Europe and the Middle East and higher in high-income countries than in middle-or low-income countries. In addition, a higher association between parent and child obesity was found when both parents were obese than when only the father or mother was obese. This study from multiple countries indicates a significant PC relationship in weight status that varies according to PC pair type, parent and child weight statuses, world region, and country income level. Conclusion: These results demonstrate that the risk of childhood obesity is greatly influenced by parental weight status and indicate that parents could play an important role in preventing child obesity.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.6 no.5
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• pp.715-725
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• 2001

This study was carried to estimate the prevalence of obesity and to investigate the relationship between stress and obesity in children. The subjects were 508 children, who were randomly selected from the fifth and sixth grade at nine elementary schools in Kangnung. The height, body weight, waist and hip circumferences and body fat(%) were measured and the levels of stress were assessed by a questionnaire consisting of the following 3 domains ; 4 items for personal factors, 11 for home, and 18 for school. The prevalence of obesity in male and female children greatly varied by the indices from 2.5% and 1.7% when judged by BMI, 9.5% and 4.0% by obesity index, and 29.7% and 34.4% by body fat(%). The stress scores from personal(47.1%) and school (47.9%) factors were higher than the stress score from home(38.5%). The stress score from personal factors of female children is significantly higher than that of male children, but the stress score from home of female children is significantly lower than that of male children. The personal stress score and the total stress score of obese female children were significantly higher than those of non-obese female children. In male children, the obesity index(%) or body fat(%) have a significant positive correlation with the stress scores from over-expectation of parents, a lack of conversation with family, examinations, discontent about school, teacher's partiality to students, and sexual curiosity. The female children have a significantly positive correlation of obesity index (%) or body fat(%) with stress scores from appearance, quarrels of parents, and inferiority complex to brothers or sisters. These results suggested that counselling and education about not only balanced diet but also the strategies for actively coping with stress are needed to prevent and treat childhood obesity.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.587-599
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• 2004

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to compare abdomen-fat rate, life style and social-support between normal weight women and obese women. Method: 304 women objectives from their 30 to 59 years of age were selected living in Je-chon city, Chung-Buck province and their height and weight were measured from April 1st to June 30th, 2003. Data were classified into low-weight group ($18.5kg/m^2$), normal-weight group ($18.5{\sim}22.9kg/m^2$), over weight group ($23{\sim}24.9kg/m^2$), and obese group ($25kg/m^2$) following the Korean Conference of Obesity, 2001. in which 119 people in the normal weight group and 91 people in the obese group, i.e. total 210 people were analyzed in sequence. Using SPSS Win 10.1 Program, frequency and percentile, and by ANOVA, $X^2-test$ and t-test were treated. Results: The average age of obese women was 46.68 distributing 40.7% of forties and 39.6% of fifties while normal-weight women were average 41.73-year old distributing 53.8% of forties and 34.5% of thirties, which revealed aged in obese women. The body fat rate of obese women averaged $37.52{\pm}4.17%$, in which 98.9% of obese women and 21.0% of normal weight women with a more than 30% of body-fat rate resulted in a higher body-fat rate in obese women. The waists of obese women averaged $88.37{\pm}8.22cm$, in which more than 85cm showed in obese women of 68.2% and normal weight women of 7.6% indicating a higher waist-fat rate in obese women. The abdomen-fat rate of more than 0.85 of waist vs hip-fat showed 74.7% in obese women and 58.4% in normal weight women, indicating a higher abdomen-fat rate in obese women. Obese women and normal weight women showed significant differences in education level, number of children, religion, menstrual status, and mother's weight. Especially, obese women ate hotter or saltier food than normal weight women preferring meat. However, no significant differences appeared in marital status, social economic status. occupation. eating habits. smoking. drinking and physical exercise. Social support levels showed a lower rate in obese women than in normal weight women, indicating a statistically significant difference (p<.05). Observing areas of social support, obese women showed lower rates in attachment/intimacy, social integrity, opportunity of foster and confidence in value except help and instruction, which indicated a statistically significant difference (p<.05). Social support for obese women showed significant differences in age, education level, social hierarchy, religion and menstrual status. Obese women were more negative than normal weight women in health recognition, indicating a statistically significant difference (p<.01). Normal weight women showed higher health recognition when provided high social support and significantly low (p<.01) health recognition when provided low social support. However, there was no significant difference in health recognition in obese women whether high or low social support was given. The health recognition of obese women showed significant differences in age, education level, social hierarchy, number of children, menstrual status, physical exercise, eating habits, eating taste and preference of food. Conclusion: Obese women showed elder than normal-weight women, higher body-fat rate and abdomen-fat rate, lower social support, and a tendency to more negative health recognition. Therefore, providing weight-control programs for the treatment of obesity and prevention of recurrence for obese women to prevent progressing to adult disease and promote a healthy life, we suggest that better eating habits and the encouragement of regular physical exercise should be included, as well as total approachment on change of health recognition and social support would be needed.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.83-93
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• 2006

This study was done for finding out if eating habits, eating behaviors were different between non-obese and obese elementary school students in Jeonju Area. Total 2568 students of 1364 male and 1204 female of the 4th, 5th, and 6th year in 5 elementary schools were surveyed and the statistics of the result was analyzed by SPSS program. The results are summarized as follows: 1. Obesity was defined as Body Mass Index(BMI) that exceeded 85th and Obesity Index(OI) that exceeded 110. First, subjects were divided into 4 groups : lean, normal, overweight and obese. Second subjects were reclassified into non-obese(lean and normal) and obese(overweight and obese) groups. Average height of male and female students were 142.5cm, 143.1cm and weight of those were 36.4kg and 37.9kg respectively. 2. As results of obesity computation, obese male students were 19.6%(overweight 11.3%, obese 8.3%) in BMI and obese male students were 25.0%(overweight 12.5.%, obese 12.5%) in OI. Especially Obesity percent rate of male student were significantly higher on that of female student in OI method. 3. Examining obesity between male and female, there were statistically different between male students and female students in OI, but there were not statistically different in BMI. With regard to grade level(4th, 5th, 6th), there were statistically different among grade levels. 4. Examining correlation between eating habits(eating behaviors) and obesity, there were statistically significant in some cases. For example, there were statistically significant correlation between fast eating habit and obesity. And the relation analysis of general environments and obesity showed that there were statistically significant in some cases. These results suggest that the number of overweight students can be increased due to the amount and kinds of food children have as well as the general causes of overweight such as genetic, environmental and psychological reason. Surveying about children's eating habits, eating behaviors this study methodically. Working with parents is necessary and comparison of eating habits, eating behaviors and nutrition knowledge between the past and their presents are also needed in a future.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.50 no.11
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• pp.1091-1096
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• 2007

Purpose : The of common carotid artery intima media thickness (IMT) is an acknowledged noninvasive marker for early atherosclerotic changes. We investigate whether common carotid IMT is different between obese and normal-weight children and also evaluate the relationships IMT with cardiovascular risk factors. Methods : We collected the clinical data (age, sex, pubertal stage, body mass index) and measured blood pressure, glucose, insulin, lipid profiles and adiponectin in 49 obese children (mean age, 12 years) and 24 nonobese children as controls. The control group was composed of 24 nonobese children of the same age, sex and pubertal stage. We measured the carotid IMT of all subjects by B-mode ultrasound with a 7.5-MHz linear transducer and analyzed. Results : Obese children demonstrated a significantly thicker intima media (mean, 0.34 mm, peak, 0.42 mm) compared to the control group (mean, 0.31 mm, peak, 0.38 mm, P<0.01). IMT was significantly correlated to the BMI (r=0.431, P<0.01), age (r=0.317, P<0.01), total cholesterol (r=0.377, P< 0.01), triglyceride (r=0.253, P<0.05) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (r=0.289, P<0.05). Serum adiponectin was significantly lower in obese children than in controls (11.2 ng/mL vs. 14.7 ng/mL, P<0.05) and negatively related with IMT (r=-0.267, P<0.05). Conclusion : Obesity is associated with increased carotid artery IMT in children. Our results suggest vascular changes in obesity seem to occur already in childhood and vascular ultrasonography may helpful for screening cardiovascular complications in obese children.