How different is the country of Georgia in developing obesity? An international comparison from the OBEY-AD database

BACKGROUND: Childhood obesity represents a severe public health burden in both developed and newly industrialized countries. OBJECTIVE: The aim of our study was to analyze obesity predictors in Georgian children and to compare them between Georgia and Europe using a unique method replicated in every country involved in the study. METHODS: Three hundred and sixty children, 3-11 years, balanced by gender were enrolled. Each child was evaluated on the following parameters: anthropometrics, brand awareness, socio-economic status, food habits, and physical activity frequency. RESULTS: Lifestyle of Georgian children was significantly different from that of European ones: they watched much more TV and did less physical activity (p-value < 0.001, for both). Moreover, in Georgia, higher BMI was associated with higher IBAI score (p-value 0.05). Similarly, in Europe, we could observe a positive relationship (p-value 0.003) between BMI and IBAI score. However, no relationship was found between BMI and TV hours per day in Georgia (p-value 0.94), while longer time spent watching TV was related with higher BMI in European children (p-value < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: It is crucial to better analyze the obesity predictors in the country of Georgia, presenting with peculiarities related to its own history, culture, and tradition. © 2017 - IOS Press and the authors.