8th Meeting on the WHO European Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative (COSI). Meeting report (2015)

The WHO Regional Office for Europe has established a European-wide standardized childhood obesity surveillance initiative (COSI) in several countries in the European Region. The programme involves routine measurement of height and weight among primary school children aged 6–9 years, in order to generate data on prevalence and trends in overweight and obesity to enhance understanding of the progress of the epidemic in this population group and to permit inter-country comparisons within the European Region.

A first data collection took place during the school year 2007/2008, the second round during the school year 2009/2010, the third round during the school year 2012/2013 and the fourth round is planned for the school year 2015/2016. Twenty-eight Member States took part in the 8th COSI meeting, convened in Dubrovnik between 18 and 20 May 2015, to share findings from the third round of data collection, prepare for the next data collection round and, more generally, discuss the future organization, possible expansion and sustainability of the Initiative.