Frequency of under- and overweight among children and adolescents during the economic transition in Poland

Abstract The aim of this study is to examine the prevalence of underweight, overweight and obesity, using International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) criteria, in four cohorts of children and adolescents living in Poland in different economic eras: communist economy (1977/1978), crisis of the 1980s (1987/1988), political and economic transformation (1992/1994) and the free market economy (2002/2004). Analysis was conducted on a database including 10,934 records for children of the age 7–18 years. In Poland, in the last 26 years of economic and political transformations, the epidemic of obesity was not noticed but the growing incidence of children and adolescents with body mass deficit was observed ( p