NUTRITIONAL IMBALANCE AND PHYSICAL ACTIVITY, A COMPARISON AMONG STUDENTS BELONGING TO DIFFERENT SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS IN METROPOLITAN CITY OF PAKISTAN

Abstract

Background: Balanced diet and optimal physical activity are necessary to maintain health and prevent diseases. Physical and mental growth of children is affected adversely by nutritional imbalance and lack of physical activity. The main factors which are responsible for nutritional imbalance are inadequate food intake and poor health status due to poverty, lack of access to food and family size. Physical inactivity is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, and chronic respiratory disease. Children and adolescents are at higher risk to nutritional imbalance. Methods: In this descriptive cross sectional study, a structured questionnaire was filled by 332 students of different age groups (11_16 years) in different public and private schools of Islamabad and Rawalpindi for 3 months. Sampling technique was simple random sampling. Results: The data obtained was analyzed using SPSS software. Out of 332 respondents111 (33.3%) belonged to low socioeconomic class, 111 (33.3%) of middle class and 110 (33.2%) of high class. The age of respondents was found similar in the three SES categories (p-value = 0.10) While calculating the BMI in three socio-economic classes (SES), we found that incidence of underweight (BMI <18.5) was higher in respondents from low SES while that of preobesity (BMI 25_29) was higher in high SES. No significant difference was found in normal and obese respondents among different SES. The incidence of adequate physical activity was slightly higher in respondents of low SES. Conclusion: the incidence of nutritional imbalance and physical activity is significantly different in population of different socioeconomic status