Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity among Upper Primary School Children from Selected Schools of Thiruvananthapuram Corporation

Childhood obesity represents a major health problem and has increased worldwide rapidly in the past two decades. The present study was intended to assess the prevalence of overweight and obesity among upper primary school children from selected schools of Thiruvananthapuram Corporation. The objectives were to estimate the prevalence of overweight and obesity among upper primary school children, assess the life style practices of upper primary school children, find out the association between overweight/obesity and selected socio- demographic variables and to find out the association between overweight / obesity and life style practices. The study was done by quantitative approach and research design used was cross sectional design. Data was collected from 400 upper primary school children from Government schools of Thiruvananthapuram Corporation, studying in 5th, 6th and 7th standards. Multistage cluster sampling was used for selection of samples. The prevalence of overweight and obesity was assessed using IAP BMI chart and structured six point likert scale was used to assess the life style practices of upper primary school children. The data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The prevalence of obesity among children was 9.5% and overweight was14.5%. The study also revealed that 37.25% upper primary school children had moderately healthy life style practices, 34.25% children had unhealthy life style practices and 28.5% children had healthy life style practices. The findings also revealed that the overweight/obesity was significantly associated with gender, type of family, socio-economic status and life style practices of upper primary school children (p<0.05).Childhood obesity is an important risk factor for future health issues. Encouraging healthy life style and exercise routine in children would prevent the occurance of this epidemic.