Abstract
This study investigates the effects and the relationship between the factors that cause childhood obesity. Several practices such as increased consumption of sweetened drinks, fastfoods, eating while watching television (TV), skipping breakfast, reduced family meal times and lower consumption of healthy foods accelerate the rate of childhood obesity. Media playsa major role in the lives of millennials. Recent studies have established that there is an increase in obesity rates in low socioeconomic groups which indicates that it is an importantfactor to be considered while developing the model. Structural equation modelling (SEM) is a quantitative model approach which brings out the relationships between various factors.Exploratory factor analysis is used to examine the SEM model. The latent variables are over eating, socio economic status and modern practices. The observed variables are family income,educational qualification of parents, physical activities, stress, BMI, food practices, consumption of junk food, consumption of vegetables and media availability. The sample consists of school and college students (n=250) in Vellore-Tamil Nadu between the ages 13-18. The data collection was conducted through Questionnaires. SPSS (Statistics & Amos) software is used for SEM modelling. The proposed model is found to be an acceptable fit.
Highlights
Obesity is a pathology that has a multifactor etiology
We have considered two groups
The dataset obtained from the questionnaire of teenage girls aged from 13 to 15 and teenage girls aged from [16,17,18] is incorporated in the Structural equation modelling (SEM) model and the confirmatory factor analysis is carried out
Summary
Obesity is a pathology that has a multifactor etiology. Genetics and environment interact and play various roles in different socioeconomic realities, establishing a disease with high prevalence in industrialized countries and in developing countries where a process of westernization is occurring. In the case of a child at risk of becoming overweight (including dietary, physical aspects, and sedentary behavior), the main characteristics can be explained by the influence of family and school environment as well as a larger social environment [30]. According to CDC, Childhood obesity is a serious problem in the United States putting children and adolescents at risk for poor health. Obesity prevalence among children and adolescents is still too high. For children and adolescents aged [2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19] years:
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
