Klachten van het bewegingsapparaat bij kinderen met overgewicht*

Objective

To study whether overweight and obese children have more frequent musculoskeletal problems and whether they seek medical assistance more often.

Design

Cross-sectional study.

Methods

We used information from general practitioners’ databases and patient interviews from the Dutch second national study 2001. We obtained useful data from 2459 children. For our analyses we used: self-reported height and weight (BMI), self-reported musculoskeletal problems in the 2 weeks before the interview, number of general practitioner consultations for musculoskeletal problems in the last year, and age. The children were divided into 2 groups: 2-11 and 12-17-year-olds.

Results

Of the 2459 children, 219 (8.9%) were overweight and 100 (4.1%) were obese. The total group of children who were overweight or obese reported significantly more musculoskeletal problems in daily life than normal-weight children, 16.0% versus 14.3% respectively; odds ratio (OR) 1.48 (95% CI: 1.07-2.05). These were further grouped into neck and back problems (9.4% versus 8.6%; OR: 1.52 (1.00-2.28)), leg problems (8.8% versus 6.4%; OR: 1.64 (1.05-2.57)) and ankle and foot problems (6.3% versus 3.4%; OR: 2.21 (1.29-3.79)). Children who were overweight or obese in the 12-17 years age group consulted their general practitioners more often for musculoskeletal problems than normal-weight children, 31.8% versus 22.3% respectively; OR: 1.62 (1.00-2.63). These were most often neck and back problems (8.2% versus 3.9%; OR: 2.23 (1.08-4.64)) and leg problems (17.6% versus 10.1%; OR: 1.92 (1.05-3.51)).

Conclusion

This study shows that overweight and obese children more frequently experience musculoskeletal problems than normal-weight children.