Prevalence of Social Dietary and Behavioral Risk Factors of Obesity among Primary School Children in Minia Governorate, Egypt

Abstract

Introduction: Childhood obesity is a serious non-communicable public health problem with negative physical, social, and mental health consequences. Factors contributing to childhood obesity are school nutrition, excessive snacks, fast food, lack of physical activity and family behavior. Increasing rates of overweight and obesity in children & adolescents in Egypt signal a very alarming trend indicating an urgent need for development of strategies to address this new problem. Aim of the Study to determine the prevalence of overweight and obesity among primary school children in Minia Governorate, Egypt and identify some socio-demographic, dietary and behavioral factors that govern the problem of obesity. Subjects and Methods: This is a cross sectional study carried out at public primary schools during the academic year 2014-2015. Cluster sampling technique was used. Students aged 6-12 years old with a total number of 250 students of both sexes were included in the study. Data were collected from the parents of all children through questionnaire including Socio demographic data, life style habits and dietary habits. Results: The prevalence of overweight and obesity is relatively high (58.6%) distributed as 34.2% overweight and (24.4%) obese. Obesity is more prevalent among (8 < 10 years) age group, female, rural resident students. More than half of the obese children belong to university educated fathers (54.9%) and mothers (58.2%). Of obese and overweight children, 75.4%belong to professional employee and clerical fathers. Skipping breakfast, regular intake of carbohydrates, dairy, fat and sweat meals were positively significantly associated with obesity, meanwhile high rate of active play (7 times or more per week), low rate of screen time (2 hours or less per day), spending holiday out door and regular intake of fruits and vegetables were negatively significantly associated with obesity. Conclusion and recommendations: This study provides further evidence of the increasingly high burden of overweight and obesity among primary school children living in Egypt. Different strategies can be implemented through many approaches to outline some important targets for anticipatory guidance to prevent obesity.