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Volume 3 Issue 6 December (Supplement2) 2015

Original Articles

PREVALENCE OF OVERWEIGHT AND OBESITY IN PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN
Jagdish Dubal

Introduction: The emerging epidemics of obesity, cardiovascular disease (CVD) and diabetes form the crux of this phenomenal change. Among these entities, obesity has become a colossal epidemic causing serious public health concern and contributes to 2.6 million deaths worldwide every year. Material & Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted on a sample of students who attended government schools during the second school term between January 2010 to April 2010. Sample size consists of 2500 students covering the 3 socioeconomic classes so that the sample taken from each socioeconomic class is near to the percent of population for this class. Result & Conclusion: This study found a relatively high prevalence of overweight and obesity among 6–12 year-old children. Socioeconomic class, faulty dietary habits, sedentary life style, low level of physical activity, and finally parental BMI showed a strong association with the BMI of students. Decreased rate of obesity with an increase in age in our study signifies faulty feeding habits were the highest at lower ages. Increased awareness about childhood overweight/obesity through publications and symposia for parents is important.
Keywords: Obesity, Children, BMI

 
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