Table 3.
Overweight and obesitya prevalence in the Pacific Region, GSHS and YRBSS, 2007-2013
| Global School-Based Student Health Surveys (GSHS) (13-15 years) | ||||
| Overweight (including obese) | Obese | |||
| Country | Males | Females | Males | Females |
| % (95 % CI) | % (95 % CI) | % (95 % CI) | % (95 % CI) | |
| Cook Islands 2011 | 58.2 | 58.9 | 29.0 | 19.0 |
| Fiji 2010 | 17.9 (13.0–24.2) | 20.4 (16.1–25.4) | 5.9 (4.0–8.8) | 4.5 (3.0–6.7) |
| Kiribati 2011 | 31.9 (27.1–37.1) | 46.4 (41.9–51.0) | 7.8 (5.0–12.0) | 8.5 (6.8–10.5) |
| Nauru 2011 | 40.0 | 48.9 | 17.8 | 15.7 |
| Niue 2010 | 60.3 | --- | 39.9 | --- |
| Samoa 2011 | 43.4 (39.0–47.9) | 59.1 (55.5–62.6) | 15.7 (12.4–19.6) | 22.3 (19.1–25.8) |
| Solomon Islands 2011 | 17.6 (13.1–23.2) | 22.4 (16.7–29.5) | 1.5 (0.7–3.1) | 2.9 (1.2–6.7) |
| Tonga 2010 | 61.2 (57.7–64.6) | 58.0 (53.8–62.0) | 24.7 (21.9–27.7) | 19.1 (15.8–22.8) |
| Tuvalu 2013 | 44.3 | 52.2 | 22.1 | 20.9 |
| Vanuatu 2011 | 8.9 (4.3–17.5) | 13.6 (8.0–22.0) | 0.3 (0.0–2.2) | 0.0 |
| Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) (Grades 9–12) | ||||
| Overweight (including obese) | Obese | |||
| Country | Males | Females | Males | Females |
| % (95 % CI) | % (95 % CI) | % (95 % CI) | % (95 % CI) | |
| American Samoa 2011 | 60.7 | 59.8 | 40.4 | 37.3 |
| Guam 2013 | 37.2 | 36.8 | 22.8 (18.9–27.2) | 17.1 (14.1–20.6) |
| Palau 2011 | 24.4 | 24.8 | 12.5 | 11.5 |
| Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands 2007 | 32.3 | 30.4 | 16.0 | 12.9 |
| Republic of the Marshall Islands 2007 | 38.7 | 40.4 | 26.3 | 23.4 |
Confidence intervals were not reported for Cook Islands, Nauru, Niue, American Samoa, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and Palau, as surveys were designed to include all members of the target population. Confidence intervals were not reported for Tuvalu
Prevalence for females in Niue was not reported due to small sample size (less than 20 students)
Results for CNMI for 2007 were obtained from: Lippe J, Brener N, Kann L. et al. Youth risk behavior surveillance - Pacific Island United States Territories, 2007 MMWR Surveillance Summaries. 2008;57(12):28–56
CI Confidence Interval
aOverweight was defined in GSHS as Body Mass Index (BMI) > +1 standard deviation from the median for BMI for age and sex based on World Health Organization reference. Obesity was defined in GSHS as BMI > +2 standard deviations from the median. For the United States affiliated Pacific Islands, we estimated overweight from the addition of YRBSS results for overweight (BMI ≥85th and <95th for BMI for age and sex based on the 2000 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reference) and obesity (defined as ≥95th percentile for BMI for age and sex). Height and weight were self-reported in YRBSS