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Table 3 Overweight and obesitya prevalence in the Pacific Region, GSHS and YRBSS, 2007-2013

From: Overweight, obesity, physical activity and sugar-sweetened beverage consumption in adolescents of Pacific islands: results from the Global School-Based Student Health Survey and the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System

Global School-Based Student Health Surveys (GSHS) (13-15 years)

 

Overweight (including obese)

Obese

Country

Males

Females

Males

Females

 

% (95 % CI)

% (95 % CI)

% (95 % CI)

% (95 % CI)

Cook Islands 2011

58.2

58.9

29.0

19.0

Fiji 2010

17.9 (13.0–24.2)

20.4 (16.1–25.4)

5.9 (4.0–8.8)

4.5 (3.0–6.7)

Kiribati 2011

31.9 (27.1–37.1)

46.4 (41.9–51.0)

7.8 (5.0–12.0)

8.5 (6.8–10.5)

Nauru 2011

40.0

48.9

17.8

15.7

Niue 2010

60.3

---

39.9

---

Samoa 2011

43.4 (39.0–47.9)

59.1 (55.5–62.6)

15.7 (12.4–19.6)

22.3 (19.1–25.8)

Solomon Islands 2011

17.6 (13.1–23.2)

22.4 (16.7–29.5)

1.5 (0.7–3.1)

2.9 (1.2–6.7)

Tonga 2010

61.2 (57.7–64.6)

58.0 (53.8–62.0)

24.7 (21.9–27.7)

19.1 (15.8–22.8)

Tuvalu 2013

44.3

52.2

22.1

20.9

Vanuatu 2011

8.9 (4.3–17.5)

13.6 (8.0–22.0)

0.3 (0.0–2.2)

0.0

Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) (Grades 9–12)

 

Overweight (including obese)

Obese

Country

Males

Females

Males

Females

 

% (95 % CI)

% (95 % CI)

% (95 % CI)

% (95 % CI)

American Samoa 2011

60.7

59.8

40.4

37.3

Guam 2013

37.2

36.8

22.8 (18.9–27.2)

17.1 (14.1–20.6)

Palau 2011

24.4

24.8

12.5

11.5

Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands 2007

32.3

30.4

16.0

12.9

Republic of the Marshall Islands 2007

38.7

40.4

26.3

23.4

  1. Confidence intervals were not reported for Cook Islands, Nauru, Niue, American Samoa, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and Palau, as surveys were designed to include all members of the target population. Confidence intervals were not reported for Tuvalu
  2. Prevalence for females in Niue was not reported due to small sample size (less than 20 students)
  3. Results for CNMI for 2007 were obtained from: Lippe J, Brener N, Kann L. et al. Youth risk behavior surveillance - Pacific Island United States Territories, 2007 MMWR Surveillance Summaries. 2008;57(12):28–56
  4. CI Confidence Interval
  5. aOverweight was defined in GSHS as Body Mass Index (BMI) > +1 standard deviation from the median for BMI for age and sex based on World Health Organization reference. Obesity was defined in GSHS as BMI > +2 standard deviations from the median. For the United States affiliated Pacific Islands, we estimated overweight from the addition of YRBSS results for overweight (BMI ≥85th and <95th for BMI for age and sex based on the 2000 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reference) and obesity (defined as ≥95th percentile for BMI for age and sex). Height and weight were self-reported in YRBSS