A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF CHILDHOOD OBESITY OF BOYS FROM URBAN AND RURAL SCHOOLS OF HARYANA

Urbanization and modernization, sedentary life, consumption of oily and junk food and other life style changes has contributed to overweight and obesity to large extent. The purpose of the study was to explore prevalence of obesity and nutritional deficiency in school going children of rural and urban schools of Haryana, India. The study was done between school boys of 10 -12 years from urban and rural areas of Haryana and it shows that urban students are significantly more over weight and obese where as rural students are significantly more under nourished and fall in starvation category. Digital weighing machine and stadiometer were used to examine the BMI of the subjects. High percentage of overweight and obesity was found in students of urban school. Perhaps high demand of exposure to nutritional values is required in rural and urban school going students.