Body Weight Status among Urban High School Girls and Its Related Determinants in Urmia, IRAN, 2005

Abstract

Background & Aims: To date, it has been well known that high body weight, weather in adulthood or in growing ages, is related to some serious medical conditions. So, this study tried to investigate the body weight status among urban high school girl students of Urmia, Iran. Material and Methods: In this cross sectional study, we measured weight, height and BMI of 956 girl students. Then a questionnaire was completed based on their dietary habits and behaviors related to their physical activity. Results: Underweight prevalence in the studied population was 8.47% (95% CI: 8.3%-8.9%). The prevalence of overweight and obesity among the studied students were 14.33% (95% CI: 13.46%-15.2%), and 5.02% (95% CI: 4.4%-5.6%) respectively. Factors that are significantly correlated with the participants' body weight, are the frequency of high energy foods intake time during a week(P<0.001), duration of computer use per day(P<0.01), educational state of their mothers (P<0.01), feeding pattern in the infancy (breastfed or non-breastfed) (P<0.05) and the kind of their schools (P<0.05).No significant association was found between other studied dietary variables (such as the time spent for eating over 24-hours, and breakfast eating times per week) and overweight / obesity. Conclusion: In this study, we have shown there were two changeable parameters (i.e. the number of times for intake of high energy foods during a week, and working with computers) which influence the high schoolgirls' body weight in the region of study.