Abstract
Objective. The primary aim of this study was to quantify the prevalence of overweight and obesity among urban 7 - 10-year-old children in affluent (quintile 5) English-medium primary schools in Port Elizabeth.Method. A quantitative, descriptive one-way cross-sectional research design utilising random sampling was used. A once-off survey consisted of anthropometrical assessment of body mass index (BMI) according to standardised procedures. To classify children into weight categories, the International Obesity Task Force z-score BMI cut-off criteria were used. Post-hoc analysis consisted of one-way analysis of variance and χ2 tests. Level of significance was set at p<0.05. A total of 713 children participated in the study.Results. Overweight prevalence was 20.9% (n=149) and obesity prevalence was 9.8% (n=70). A significant interaction was found for overweight and obesity levels by gender and age (F=7.2, p=0.01). Of the boys (N=372) 18.5% (n=69) were overweight and 6.9% (n=26) were obese. The girls (N=341) had a 23.5% (n=80) overweight rate and 12,9% (n=44) were obese. The highest prevalence of overweight (24.7%, n=43, N=174) was found in children aged 10, and the highest prevalence of obesity (12.5%, n=21, N=167) was found in children aged 8. Conclusion. Results highlighted the rising prevalence of overweight and obesity among urban children from economically privileged settings. Future research into paediatric obesity is needed to curb the growing incidence.
Highlights
Converted body mass index (BMI) z-scores indicated a mean of 0.4 (0.7); this was done in order to compare res ults to international normative data.[14]
Findings from this study indicated that most participants were classified as normal or with optimal BMI according to international criteria for growing children
Children as young as 8 years were found to be obese, more so than 10-yearolds who were overweight rather than obese. This trend is alarming when compared with earlier studies, as young children in this study showed higher BMI levels at an earlier age than previously documented
Summary
The primary aim of this study was to quantify the prevalence of overweight and obesity among urban 7 - 10-year-old children in affluent (quintile 5) English-medium primary schools in Port Elizabeth. Results highlighted the rising prevalence of overweight and obesity among urban children from economically privileged settings. This article focuses attention on body mass index (BMI) status in urban children in economically privileged (quintile 5) primary schools in Port Elizabeth. Quintile 5 children were assessed to infer a relationship between affluence and obesity prevalence in developing countries
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