Prevalence of childhood obesity and its determinants among rural children of B G Nagara

Introduction: India is witnessing under nutrition as one of the major public health problem, however there exists a significant magnitude of overweight and obesity among children and adolescent. Childhood obesity has emerged as one of the global health problems as a result of high intake of calorie rich foods and low level of physical activity. Most of the studies are conducted at metropolitan cities with limited information on prevalence of childhood obesity in rural area. Aim and Objective: To determine the prevalence of obesity among school children in the age group of 6-12 years in rural Mandya. Materials and Methods: A cross sectional survey was conducted among 1328 students in the age group 6-12 years. The body mass index (BMI) for age charts were used to assess weight in relation to height as recommended by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The 85th-95th percentile and ? 95th percentile specific for age and sex were used to define overweight and obesity respectively in children. Results and Conclusion: Data from 1288 students were included for analysis with the overall response rate of 96.98%. Out of 1288 participants 777 (60.3%) were boys, 511 (39.7%) were girls. The prevalence of underweight, overweight and obesity was 54.9% (n=707), 1.8% (n=24) and about 1% (n=12) respectively. The prevalence was more towards pubertal age (10-12 years) than in early childhood. Childhood obesity was not associated with parental obesity or junk food consumption in children. To conclude, even though prevalence of childhood overweight /obesity was about 2.8%, it necessitates immediate action as it is accompanied by many non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease.