A 2010 article from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition analyzed global prevalence from 144 countries in preschool children (less than 5 years old). Cross-sectional surveys from 144 countries were used and overweight and obesity were defined as preschool children with values >3SDs from the mean. They found an estimated 42 million obese children under the age of five in the world of which close to 35 million lived in developing countries.11 Additional findings included worldwide prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity increasing from 4.2% (95% CI: 3.2%, 5.2%) in 1990 to 6.7% (95% CI: 5.6%, 7.7%) in 2010 and expecting to rise to 9.1% (95% CI: 7.3%, 10.9%), an estimated 60 million overweight and obese children in 2020.
