Prevalence of overweight, weight for height (% of children under 5) - Middle East

Definition: Prevalence of overweight children is the percentage of children under age 5 whose weight for height is more than two standard deviations above the median for the international reference population of the corresponding age as established by the WHO's new child growth standards released in 2006.

Description: The map below shows how Prevalence of overweight, weight for height (% of children under 5) varies by country in the Middle East. The shade of the country corresponds to the magnitude of the indicator. The darker the shade, the higher the value. The country with the highest value in the region is Syrian Arab Republic, with a value of 17.90. The country with the lowest value in the region is Pakistan, with a value of 2.50.

Source: UNICEF, WHO, World Bank: Joint child malnutrition estimates (JME). Aggregation is based on UNICEF, WHO, and the World Bank harmonized dataset (adjusted, comparable data) and methodology.

See also: Country ranking, Time series comparison

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Aggregation method: Linear mixed-effect model estimates

Periodicity: Annual

General Comments: Estimates of overweight children are also from national survey data. Once considered only a high-income economy problem, overweight children have become a growing concern in developing countries. Research shows an association between childhood obesity and