Obesity in the Scandinavian Countries: Prevalence and Developmental Trends

Abstract

In the population of Danish young men, whose height and weight have been measured at the draft boards since 1943, a sudden steep increase occurred after 1960 in the prevalence of severe obesity (body mass index (BMI) greater than or equal to 31 kg/m2). The increase appeared to be independent of height, homogeneous over the range of severe obesity, unaccompanied by any change in the psychosocial correlates, linked to the birth cohorts, and specific for the severely obese. The cause of the increase in prevalence must be of an environmental nature. Investigation of the developmental course through the school ages and distributional changes over time among school children suggests that the increase in prevalence of severe obesity among young men is due to an increased persistence of obesity through adolescence, which parallels the development of welfare conditions in this country.