Abstract
Background: The prevalence of overweight and obesity in children has been increasing worldwide. South Africa has minimal data on childhood body weight. Objectives: This study determined whether school children in the eThekwini district in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, were underweight or overweight. Method: A survey with quantitative and qualitative components was conducted amongst 120 participants between 10 years and 12 years of age. The participants were randomly selected from six public schools in an urban district of the province. A calibrated Goldline bathroom scale was used to measure body weight and a KDS Freo non-elastic measuring tape was used to measure height. A questionnaire consisting of open and close-ended questions collected demographic and lifestyle information. Body mass index (BMI) was calculated from height and weight data. Proportions of obese, overweight and underweight children were calculated and subjected to chi-square tests at the p ≤ 0.05 significance level. All qualitative information was summarised. Results: According to World Health Organization criteria, 66% of the children were underweight, 28% were of normal weight and 5% were overweight. The proportion of underweight children increased with age (64% of children aged between 10 years and 11 years vs 70% for 12-year-olds). Of the underweight children, 41% were female and 51% were Indian.Only one child was obese. BMI was related to dietary patterns and activity levels during and outside school hours. Conclusion: A significant number of primary school children from the six selected public schools in the eThekwini district were underweight. More effort is required to improve the nutritional status of school children in the eThekwini district.
Highlights
SettingKey focus Overweight and obesity amongst school children have reached epidemic proportions in both developed and developing countries, but few published reports have examined its prevalence and significance in South Africa.[1,2] The majority of the South African population experiences poor economic status and grapples with the problems of underweight and malnutrition, which is often overshadowed by other epidemics such as obesity
It should be noted that the World Health Organization (WHO) standard is generic and that the Indian standard is specific to people in that country and cannot be used to classify obesity in Indian children in South Africa.[17]
The findings show that pockets of South African children may be experiencing a nutritional problem similar to that in developing countries.[13]
Summary
SettingKey focus Overweight and obesity amongst school children have reached epidemic proportions in both developed and developing countries, but few published reports have examined its prevalence and significance in South Africa.[1,2] The majority of the South African population experiences poor economic status and grapples with the problems of underweight and malnutrition, which is often overshadowed by other epidemics such as obesity. The prevalence of underweight in children has received attention from international health agencies, but seems to be overshadowed by the epidemic status afforded to overweight and obesity Both over- and underweight are linked to morbidity and mortality in children worldwide, but published literature have focused mainly on children from developed countries.[3] The statistics on childhood obesity and overweight in Australia, the USA, Portugal, Spain and other affluent or affluenceattaining countries are alarming.[3,4,5] Armstrong, Lambert, Sharwoord and Lambert[6] found that the prevalence of obesity among South African children was 3.2% for boys and 4.9% for girls, whilst the prevalence of overweight was 2.4% for boys and 10.9% for girls. Strategies to identify the causes and manage the problem have received attention http://www.phcfm.org doi:10.4102/phcfm.v3i1.203
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