Assessment of Obesity in School Children

Introduction:The WHO refers obesity as a globalepidemic because of rapid increase in thenumber of overweight and obese individualsin last 20 years. The onset of obesity mayoccur at any age and it maybe triggered byfactors such as early weaning, inadequatefood intake, eating disorders and problemsrelated to disturbed family relationships.Objectives:1. Assessment of nutritional status ofschool children2. To analyze the relationshipbetween obesity with physicalactivity and sleeping hours.3. To analyze the relationshipbetween obesity and correlationbetween waist hip ratio and bodymass index.Materials and methods:We measured the weight, height, body massindex and mid arm circumference ofchildren. The children were classified asnormal, underweight, overweight or obese,according to body mass index per age. 54children were assessed at a school nearBhavnagar Medical CollegeResults:Out of 54 students, there were 32 girls and22 boys. Out of 32 girls 11 were normal, 3were overweight and 18 were under weightand out of 22 boys 6 were normal, 1overweight and 15 were under weight.Discussion:The prevalence of overweight and obesity inschool-aged children in our study counterthe results obtained from other studies.Present data was analyzed statistically andwe had tried to correlate it with sleepinghours, time spent in front of TV andcomputer as well as physical activity. Wehave also tried to find out the association ofparents occupation with their weight status.Conclusion:We observed an association betweenexcess weight and obesity and inactivity inchildren. The time spent in sleeping was apositive factor for maintaining a balancebetween weight and height. There was alsoan association between underweightchildren and working mothers.Key Words :