[Screening for obesity in a schoolchildren population of the 20th zone of Milan and a nutritional education intervention]. / Screening dell'obesità nella popolazione scolastica della zona 20 di Milano ed intervento di educazione alimentare.

Our study was performed in 1986-'87 and 1987-'88 school years on 12.354 three to eighteen years old students (the whole scholastic population of zone 20 of Milan) in order to apply dietary education on obese subjects. Mean prevalence of obesity was 13.4% with elevated percentages in 11 to 13 years old students (17.9%), with respect to primary (14.1%), high school (12.4%) and nursery school (4.7%). The 36% of obese subjects (more than 50% of adolescents) had already tempted to reduce body weight. Intervention reduced % weight excess (from 33.6 +/- 0.5% to, 28.8 +/- 0.5% after 12 months, p less than 0.001); 67% of obese subjects lost weight and body weight returned within normal limits in 31% of subjects. An educational dietetic strategy may be successful in childhood obesity.