Patterns of childhood and adolescent overweight and obesity during health transition in vanuatu.

OBJECTIVE: Rapid economic development and subsequent changes in lifestyle and disease burdens (‘health transition’) is associated with increasing prevalence of obesity among both adults and children. However, because of continued infectious diseases and undernutrition during the early stages of transition, monitoring childhood obesity has not been prioritized in many countries and the scope of the problem is unknown. Therefore we sought to characterize patterns of childhood overweight and obesity in an early transitional area, the South Pacific archipelago of Vanuatu.

DESIGN: We completed an anthropometric survey among children from three islands with varying levels of economic development, from rural areas (where adult obesity prevalence is low) to urban areas (where adult obesity prevalence is high).

SETTING: The islands of Ambae (rural), Aneityum (rural with tourism) and Efate (urban).

SUBJECTS: Boys and girls (n 513) aged 6-17 years.

RESULTS: Height-, weight- and BMI-for-age did not vary among islands, and prevalence of overweight/obesity based on BMI was low. However, girls from Aneityum – a rural island where the tourism industry increased rapidly after malaria eradication – had increased central adiposity compared with girls from the other islands. This is contrary to adult patterns, which indicate higher obesity prevalence in urban areas. Multiple factors might contribute, including stunting, biological responses after malaria control, sleeping patterns, diet and physical activity levels.

CONCLUSIONS: Measures of central adiposity highlight an emerging obesity risk among girls in Vanuatu. The data highlight the synergistic relationship among infectious diseases, undernutrition and obesity during the early stages of health transition.