A Study On Growth Parameters And Prevalence Of Overweight And Obesity Among School Going Children (5 – 10 Years) In Tirunelveli District

Abstract

Recent data indicate a rise in obesity in children in developing countries. A study in India revealed that among school going children 9.9% of boys and 12% of girls were overweight and 6.3% of the girls were obese. This study highlights the theories of prevalence, assessment dietary significance, clinical effects and inter relation between low socio economic and upper socio economic status of childhood for overweight and obesity. This paper outlined current tools used to assess and identify those who are at risk for overweight and obesity. The current gold standard for assessing and diagnosing overweight and obesity is the Body Mass Index (BMI). This study was designed to know the prevalence of childhood obesity in school children from rural and urban areas in Tirunelveli district. Data on the prevalence of obesity in children were collected and analyzed from two schools from urban and rural areas of Tirunelveli district respectively. The prevalence of childhood obesity in Tirunelveli is not very high as compared to other reports from different regions of the country. However, it is an important multi factorial condition which needs immediate medical attention to stop the march of healthy children towards chronic disorders. I. Introduction Obesity is one of the most prevalent nutritional diseases of children and adolescents in many developed and developing countries. The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared overweight as one of the top ten health risks in the world and one of the top five in developed nations. The term overweight refers to an excess of body weight 10 percent greater than the standard, whereas obesity is used to describe an excess body weight 20 percent or more than the standard. Childhood obesity is a condition where excess body fat negatively affects a child's health or wellbeing. As methods to determine body fat directly are difficult, the diagnosis of Obesity is often based on BMI. The prevalence of overweight and obesity in urban children in Delhi has shown an increase from 16% in 2002 to about 24% in 2006. According to our recent data, the prevalence among adolescent children (14 - 17 years) was 29% in private schools and 11.3% in government funded schools in 2006 - 2007. Globally an estimated 10% of school-aged children between 5 to 17 years of age are overweight or obese. Prevalence of childhood and adolescent obesity and overweight from different parts of India (Punjab, Maharashtra, Delhi and South India) that range from 3% to 29% and also indicate that the prevalence is higher in urban than in rural areas. One half of obese school children become obese adults. However, whether or not obesity persists into adulthood, obesity in childhood appears to increase the risk of subsequent morbidity. The proportion of school-age children affected will almost double by 2010 compared with the most recently available surveys from the late 1990s up to 2003. Children were categorized into three groups: Obese (> 95 th percentile), Overweight (85 th percentile) and normal ( 5 th percentile) using age - and sex - specific percentiles of BMI. World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended various indices based on anthropometry to evaluate the nutritional status of children (WHO, 1995). Weight, height and BMI for age are parameters for assessment of nutritional status in children. The BMI is expressed as BMI= Weight in kg / (Height) in m 2