Study on the relationship between dairy intake and overweight/obesity among school-age children

Objective To explore the dairy intake and its relationship with overweight and obesity in school-age children in China. Methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 742 school-age children from eight areas of China chosen by multi-stage cluster sampling. Multiple linear regression and multivariable logistic regression analyses were used to assess associations mentioned above. Results The rates of overweight and obesity of school-age children were 16.5% and 9.0%, respectively. The total percentage of dairy consumers was 84.4%. Among all consumers, the proportion of yogurt consumers (71.0%) was much higher than that of whole milk consumers (58.6%) and lowfat or skim milk consumers (18.9%). Total milk intake levels and whole milk intake levels were positively associated with body mass index for age Z-score (BAZ) (all P<0.05). Conclusions There are positive associations between total milk intake levels, whole milk intake levels and BAZ. It is suggested that school-age children should increase the intake ratio of lowfat or skim milk and yogurt appropriately.