9th Meeting of the WHO European Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative (COSI). Meeting Report (2016)

The 9th meeting of the standardized childhood obesity surveillance initiative (COSI) took place in St Petersburg in June 2016. The initiative involves routine measurement of height and weight among primary school children aged 6–9 years, and was established by the WHO Regional Office for Europe in order to generate data on prevalence and trends in overweight and obesity to enhance understanding of childhood obesity trends 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 will be completed by the end of 2016. Thirty-two Member States took part in the 9th COSI meeting, convened in St Petersburg between 13 and 14 June 2016, to share preliminary findings and lessons from the fourth round of data collection and, more generally, discuss how to improve the organization and manage the growth, possible expansion of the scope and the sustainability of the Initiative.