Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity among School-Going Children aged 515 Years in Rural and Urban Areas of Puducherry: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background: Childhood overweight and obesity are increasingly recognised as important public health concerns, while undernutrition continues to coexist in many Indian populations. Local data are needed to understand the magnitude of this dual burden. Objective: To determine the prevalence of overweight and obesity among school-going children aged 5–15 years in rural and urban areas of Puducherry and to compare BMI categories across selected demographic subgroups. Methods: A cross-sectional observational study was conducted among 1002 school-going children aged 5–15 years from government and private schools in rural and urban areas of Puducherry from June to December 2024. Multistage random sampling was used. Height and weight were measured using standardised calibrated instruments, and BMI-for-age was classified using the WHO 2007 reference for children aged 5–19 years. Categorical variables were compared using the chisquare test and mean BMI between two independent groups using the independent-samples t-test. Statistical significance was set at p<0.05. Results: Of the 1002 children, 47 (4.7%) were obese and 309 (30.8%) were overweight, giving a combined overweight/obesity prevalence of 35.5%. Underweight was present in 167 (16.7%) children and 479 (47.8%) had normal BMI-for-age. The mean BMI was 16.87±3.08 kg/m². There were no significant differences in BMI category by sex (p=0.971), area of residence (p=0.872), school type (p=0.267), or age group (p=0.904). The highest obesity prevalence was observed among children aged 8–10 years (5.9%), although the age-group difference was not significant. Conclusion: More than one-third of the children had overweight or obesity, while a substantial proportion remained underweight. The absence of significant differences across major demographic and school subgroups supports universal school-based prevention, screening and health-promotion strategies in Puducherry.