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Abstract

This paper contrasts two findings from the same national covering material in Sweden for children born in 1973 and 1981 from age
7y to 18y. For both boys and girls obesity is increasing in both prevalence and severity and at the same time there is an increasing
rate of weight loss episodes especially among girls. Two questions are put: Does this simultaneously development challenge public
health work and can these findings be replicated elsewhere? Like in most of the world, the obesity epidemic among children and
adolescents is also present in Sweden. Longitudinal surveys of two national representative samples born in 1973 and 1981 have shown
that over a period of eight years the rate of obesity among boys and girls, age 7 to 18years, has increased both in prevalence and
severity. The last decade’s discussions on whether weight loss and eating disorders, especially among girls, is a growing problem have
been ongoing in many countries, but nevertheless it has never been shown convincingly as an increasing phenomenon. In Sweden, by
investigating the same data-set as in the study above, it has been shown that there is an increasing rate of weight loss episodes among
both boys and girls, especially girls.

Biography

Bo Werner has completed his PhD from Karolinska Institutet, Department of Public Health Sciences Division of Social Medicine Stockholm. Thesis: Growth in Sweden. He
has been the head of Department of Public Health and Community Medicine Örebro County Council and has served as a reviewer during the last 10 years for 6 different
reputed medical journals. Serve now as a senior lecturer within School of Medicine at Örebro University.