Despite adults' best preventive efforts, childhood obesity is on the rise in most areas of the world, and with it the prevalence of Type 2 diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and other formerly adult-onset conditions. Epidemiology of Obesity in Children and Adolescents takes the global ecological approach that is needed to understand the scope of the problem and its multiple causes and mechanisms, and to aid in developing more effective prevention and intervention programs. In the book's first half, experts present a descriptive summary of youth obesity trends in ten world regions, broken down by age group, gender, socioeconomic status, and risk factors. Complementing these findings, part two reviews the evidence base regarding the variables, separately and in combination, having the most significant impact on young people's development of obesity, including: * Genetic and nutrigenomic factors. * Environmental and psychosocial factors, such as family shopping and eating habits and access to healthful foods. * Neuroendocrine regulation. * Prenatal and neonatal factors (e.g., gestational diabetes of the mother). * Dietary factors, from nutrient content to young people's food preferences. * Physical activity versus sedentary behavior. Epidemiology of Obesity in Children and Adolescents is necessary reading for the range of professionals involved in curtailing this epidemic, including public health specialists, epidemiologists, pediatricians, nurses, nutritionists, psychologists, health educators, and policymakers.

This book describes key methods and instruments for assessing diet-related factors, physical activity, social and environmental factors, physical characteristics and health-related outcomes in children and adolescents. These tools were developed and deployed within the framework of the pan-European IDEFICS and I.Family cohort studies. These population-based field studies were funded within the 6th and 7th European Framework Programme, respectively, and were intended to assess the prevalence and aetiology of lifestyle-related diseases in children, focusing on overweight and obesity, and to develop effective strategies for primary prevention. In the course of a decade we undertook a major research endeavour, collecting standardised data from children, families, neighbourhoods, kindergartens, pre-schools and schools in eight European countries, employing a uniform cross-cultural methodology. This resulted in a rich picture of the daily lives and living contexts of children and their families. Studies encompassing childhood and adolescence face the particular challenge of the transitions from pre-school to primary school and from childhood to adolescence; accordingly, the instruments used need to be adapted to different developmental stages while maintaining their comparability across the age range. In young children, questionnaires have to be completed by proxies, usually their parents, while older children, particularly adolescents, can provide a major part of the requested information themselves. This book presents suitable designs, methods and instruments for data collection in studies of children and adolescents. Each chapter explains the development and background of the instruments applied in the surveys and summarises the current state of knowledge. All chapters were written by key experts in their respective research fields. We are grateful for their valuable contributions and their enthusiastic support in producing this book, which also presents survey experiences in which practice does not always follow theory. Participants' responses can on occasion be unexpected and unpredictable, but meeting these challenges can also enrich epidemiological surveys and yield methodological refinements. We sincerely hope that the book and the online material will be of considerable value to other research teams.

This book describes key methods and instruments for assessing diet-related factors, physical activity, social and environmental factors, physical characteristics and health-related outcomes in children and adolescents. These tools were developed and deployed within the framework of the pan-European IDEFICS and I.Family cohort studies. These population-based field studies were funded within the 6th and 7th European Framework Programme, respectively, and were intended to assess the prevalence and aetiology of lifestyle-related diseases in children, focusing on overweight and obesity, and to develop effective strategies for primary prevention. In the course of a decade we undertook a major research endeavour, collecting standardised data from children, families, neighbourhoods, kindergartens, pre-schools and schools in eight European countries, employing a uniform cross-cultural methodology. This resulted in a rich picture of the daily lives and living contexts of children and their families. Studies encompassing childhood and adolescence face the particular challenge of the transitions from pre-school to primary school and from childhood to adolescence; accordingly, the instruments used need to be adapted to different developmental stages while maintaining their comparability across the age range. In young children, questionnaires have to be completed by proxies, usually their parents, while older children, particularly adolescents, can provide a major part of the requested information themselves. This book presents suitable designs, methods and instruments for data collection in studies of children and adolescents. Each chapter explains the development and background of the instruments applied in the surveys and summarises the current state of knowledge. All chapters were written by key experts in their respective research fields. We are grateful for their valuable contributions and their enthusiastic support in producing this book, which also presents survey experiences in which practice does not always follow theory. Participants' responses can on occasion be unexpected and unpredictable, but meeting these challenges can also enrich epidemiological surveys and yield methodological refinements. We sincerely hope that the book and the online material will be of considerable value to other research teams.

Despite adults' best preventive efforts, childhood obesity is on the rise in most areas of the world, and with it the prevalence of Type 2 diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and other formerly adult-onset conditions. Epidemiology of Obesity in Children and Adolescents takes the global ecological approach that is needed to understand the scope of the problem and its multiple causes and mechanisms, and to aid in developing more effective prevention and intervention programs. In the book's first half, experts present a descriptive summary of youth obesity trends in ten world regions, broken down by age group, gender, socioeconomic status, and risk factors. Complementing these findings, part two reviews the evidence base regarding the variables, separately and in combination, having the most significant impact on young people's development of obesity, including: * Genetic and nutrigenomic factors. * Environmental and psychosocial factors, such as family shopping and eating habits and access to healthful foods. * Neuroendocrine regulation. * Prenatal and neonatal factors (e.g., gestational diabetes of the mother). * Dietary factors, from nutrient content to young people's food preferences. * Physical activity versus sedentary behavior. Epidemiology of Obesity in Children and Adolescents is necessary reading for the range of professionals involved in curtailing this epidemic, including public health specialists, epidemiologists, pediatricians, nurses, nutritionists, psychologists, health educators, and policymakers.

Ziel dieses Buches ist es, die fur epidemiologische Studien notwendigen methodischen Kenntnisse zu vermitteln. Dazu werden die Konzepte der Konstruktion und Gewinnung epidemiologischer Masszahlen, die wichtigsten Erhebungsmethoden, die Bewertung und Korrektur von Fehlerquellen sowie die grundlegenden Auswertungsmethoden beschrieben. Die statistischen Methoden werden in einem eigenen Anhang beschrieben. In der 5. Auflage wurden das Autorenteam erweitert und der Text umfangreichen Erweiterungen unterzogen. Enthalten sind eine Vielzahl von praktischen Beispielen.