A study of prevalence of obesity among adolescents (10-19 years) in Jaipur city with special reference to lifestyle

Abstract

Background: Childhood obesity is not an immediate lethal disease itself, but has a significant risk factors associated with a range of non-communicable diseases in adulthood. The aim of this study to determine the nutritional status of adolescents and to determine the proportion of adolescents having overweight and obesity.Methods: We included 1000 students aged between 10-19 years divided equally between government schools and private schools. This study was a questionnaire based study, only those adolescent children were included who volunteered. All the respondents were introduced to the topic of study and the need to collect sensitive information and were promised confidentiality of the entries.Results: The average age of the study group was 15.20±2.60 years in government schools and 15.28±2.53 years in private schools. The difference was statistically not significant (p=0.095). Among obese adolescents’ waist hip ratio is 0.013 Significant, neck circumference is 0.018 Significant, BMI is <0.001 Significant.Conclusions: Therefore, strategies for prevention of overweight, obesity, weight reduction, promotion of healthy lifestyles and regular monitoring are necessary to prevent the onset and early detection of adolescents health problems. This study has brought out important points for further study for sufficiently larger samples to confirm the epidemiological consistency of the observations made in this study.