Determinants of Overweight and Obesity among School Children in Mehsana district, India

Abstract

WHO refers obesity as a global epidemic because of rapid increase in the number of overweight and obese individuals in last 20 years. The objective of the study was to study the prevalence of overweight and obesity and determine their associated factors among school children aged 10-12 years in Mehsana district in India. A single centric epidemiological study was conducted among 200 school children selected at random in Mehsana district school in the period from July 2011 to September 2011. Overweight and obesity were assessed using height, weight, waist circumference and hip circumference of each student in the class. A predesigned and pretested questionnaire was used to interview the students to elicit the information on family characteristics like number of family members, education and occupation of parents, their usual physical activity, habit of watching TV and time spent with computer and for sleeping as well as the pattern of dietary intake. Significant difference in BMI for boys (p<0.0010) as well as girls (p<0.0123) was observed in all the three underweight, overweight and obese groups as compared to normal group. Significant difference in hip and waist circumference was observed only in the underweight group as compared to normal. Risk of overweight and obesity was significantly higher in children who spent time in television viewing and/or with computer. The present study highlights childhood obesity is an emerging health problem which need to be confirmed by large scale studies and effective preventive strategies should be developed to halt this epidemic at its beginning.