Peer-reviewed article
Overweight & obesity epidemic, temporal trends and regional disparities in physical growth of Vietnamese children.
Nhan Thi Ho, David Bangsberg, Michelle L Hermiston, Cuong Tat Do, Lam Nam Phung et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study analyzed growth data from over 200,000 health check visits of Vietnamese children aged 18 months to 18 years in three major cities between 2018 and 2024. The researchers found very high rates of overweight and obesity, particularly among boys (47.7%) compared to girls (26.3%), which are 2-3 times higher than WHO thresholds. While obesity rates decreased over the study period and adolescent heights increased, significant regional differences were found, with Haiphong showing the highest obesity rates and shortest average heights.
Key points
- Overweight and obesity prevalence was 47.7% in males and 26.3% in females aged 5-18 years, far exceeding WHO cutoff values for very high public health concern
- Overweight and obesity prevalence decreased significantly from 2018 to 2024
- Median height of adolescents increased significantly over the 6-year period
- Haiphong had the highest prevalence of overweight and obesity and shortest median heights compared to Hanoi and Hochiminh
- Data came from children attending private schools in three major Vietnamese cities
Limitations
The study only includes children from private schools in three urban areas, which may not represent rural or lower-income Vietnamese children. The data cannot explain the causes of obesity or identify effective interventions to address the epidemic.
Abstract
Published population-based data regarding physical growth of Vietnamese children is meager. We analyzed anthropometric data from 2018 to 2024 of 202,163 annual health check visits of 88,884 children aged from 18 months to 18 years attending private schools in 3 major cities in Vietnam (Hochiminh, Hanoi and Haiphong) to evaluate physical growth, especially overweight and obesity, temporal trends and regional disparities in the physical growth of Vietnamese children. The prevalence (95% confidence interval (CI)) of overweight and obesity was strikingly high for males (47.7% (47.3%, 48%)) and females (26.3% (26%, 26.7%)) aged from 5 years to 18 years. This was approximately three and two folds, respectively, higher than WHO cutoff values for very high public health significance. There was a significant decrease in overweight and obesity prevalence and a significant increase in median height of adolescents from 2018 to 2024. The prevalence of overweight and obesity was highest in Haiphong and the median height for most age in years of males and females was shortest in Haiphong as compared to Hanoi and Hochiminh. Our findings indicate that prevention and control measures should be implemented to reduce the burden and related health issues of overweight and obesity in Vietnamese urban children.