Assessment of Childhood Obesity in school going Children (6 -11years) of a Y?Category City of India

Childhood obesity is a health hazard reaching epidemic levels globally. Identification of obesity at an early age is important to prevent the manifestation of its co morbidities in later adulthood. A cross sectional study of randomly selected 600 school going children (both male and female) of age group of 6 11 years was conducted in four different schools of Bhopal District, Madhya Pradesh. Assessment of overweight and obesity was done using BMI cut off points given by International Obesity Task Force (IOTF). Data was analysed based on percentages and relationship between variables and obesity were established using Chi square test and multivariate logistic regression analysis. The present study highlighted that 26.5 % of the school children in Bhopal district were overweight and obese. Prevalence of overweight and obesity was higher in girls (53 % and 61.5 %, respectively) than in boys (47 % and 38.5 %, respectively). The study revealed that the important correlates of overweight/obesity were the size of the family (p=0.001), socioeconomic status (pless than0.0001) and family history of high Blood Pressure (p=0.050). Sleep pattern of the children were not associated with obesity/overweight.