ORIGINAL ARTICLE Is thinness more prevalent than obesity in Portuguese adolescents? Pedro Marques-Vidal a,b, *, Raquel Ferreira c , Joa ˜o Miguel Oliveira d , Fred Paccaud b a Cardiomet, 21 rue du Bugnon, 1005 Lausanne, Switzerland b Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine (IUMSP), University of Lausanne, 17 rue du Bugnon, 1005 Lausanne, Switzerland c Unidade de Nutric ¸a˜o e Metabolismo, Instituto de Medicina Molecular, Faculdade de Medicina de Lisboa, Avenida Professor Egas Moniz, 1649-028 Lisbon, Portugal d Universidade Luso´fona de Humanidades e Tecnologias, Avenida Campo Grande 376, 1749-024 Lisbon, Portugal Accepted 4 April 2008 KEYWORDS Nutritional status; Obesity; Prevalence; Nutritional deficiency; Epidemiology Summary Background & aims: There is little information regarding the prevalence of thinness in Euro- pean adolescents. This was assessed in a convenience sample of children and adolescents from the Lisbon area (Portugal). Methods: Cross-sectional study including 2494 boys and 2519 girls aged 10e18 years. Body mass index (BMI), waist and hip were measured using standardized methods; thinness was defined using international criteria. Body fat was assessed by bioelectrical impedance. Results: In girls, prevalence of thinness, overweight and obesity were 5.6%, 19.7% and 4.7%, respec- tively, whereas the corresponding numbers in boys were 3.9%, 17.4% and 5.3%. Prevalence of thinness increased whereas obesity decreased with age: from 1.5% to 7.6% for thinness and from 9.2% to 3.8% for obesity in girls aged 10 and 18, respectively. In boys, the corresponding trends were from 0% to 7.3% for thinness and from 10.6% to 3% for obesity. After adjusting for age, differences were found between BMI groups for weight, body fat percentage, fat mass, lean mass, waist and hip, while no differences regarding height were found between thin and normal weight participants. Conclusions: The prevalence of thinness is more frequent than obesity after age 14 in girls and 16 years in boys. Thinness is associated with a decreased body weight and body fat, whereas no consistent effect on height was noted. ª 2008 Elsevier Ltd and European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism. All rights reserved. * Corresponding author. Institut Universitaire de Me ´decine Sociale et Pre ´ventive, 17 rue du Bugnon, CH-1005 Lausanne, Switzerland. Tel.: þ41 21 314 7272; fax: þ41 21 314 7373. E-mail address: pedro-manuel.marques-vidal@chuv.ch (P. Marques-Vidal). 0261-5614/$ - see front matter ª 2008 Elsevier Ltd and European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.clnu.2008.04.002 available at www.sciencedirect.com http://intl.elsevierhealth.com/journals/clnu Clinical Nutrition (2008) 27, 531e536