Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity in School Going Children of Surat

Introduction: Overweight and obesity are important determinants of health leading to adverse metabolic changes and increase the risk of non communicable diseases. Hence, the present study was undertaken to study the prevalence of overweight/obesity among school going children of Surat city (Western India).

Materials and Method: The cross-sectional study was carried out in the 5 middle-schools (8th to12th standard) of Surat. Probability proportionate to size of population technique was used to decide the number of children to be studied from each school, each class and then each section. Pre-designed and pre-tested questionnaire was used to elicit the information on family characteristics and individual characteristics. Height and weight was measured and then BMI was calculated. Overweight and obesity was assessed by BMI for age.

Results: Overweight and obesity was found to be 15.98 % and 8.94 % respectively; together constitute 24.92 %. Prevalence of Overweight was 15.77 % and 16.12 % among males and females respectively and prevalence of Obesity was 8.60 % and 9.18% among males and females respectively.

Conclusion: Medium of study, father's occupation, eating habits, junk food consumption, time spent on watching T.V /computer, time spent for playing outdoor games, attending tuition, and mode of transport for reaching school were associated to overweight/obesity. Individual characteristics played important role in predisposing the children to overweight/obesity, hence the interventions need to be directed towards the individuals.