Prevalence of overweight and obesity among public primary school children in Basrah city

Other Title(s)

مدى انتشار فرط الوزن و السمنة بين أطفال المدارس الإبتدائية العامة في مدينة البصرة

Dissertant

Salman, Mayyadah Abd al-Jalil

Thesis advisor

Ajil, Narjis Abd al-Hasan

Comitee Members

Habib, Umran Sukkar
al-Khudhairy, Jamal M.
Manthar, Ayidah A.

University

University of Basrah

Faculty

Medicine College

Department

Department of Community Medicine

University Country

Iraq

Degree

Master

Degree Date

2011

English Abstract

-This is a descriptive cross-sectional study with a comparative component that was carried out in Basrah city center.

The study was conducted on a sample of children who attended public primary schools during the first school term (between the 1st of November 2010 and 31st of May 2011).

The aim of the study was to estimate the prevalence of overweight/obesity among public primary school children and to identify the main factors associated with overweight and obesity.

A multistage stratified random sampling method was adopted to select the sample for the present study.

A sample of 1466 children participated in the study, 737 of them were males and 729 were females.

Body Mass Index was used as indicator for overweight/obesity.

The data relevant to the study purpose were obtained through a special questionnaire form which was prepared for the purpose of the study.

The questionnaire has two sections; the first section was filled in the classroom by the investigator which included children's personal information: name, grade, gender, date of birth, in addition to anthropometric measurements.

The second section was filled by the children's parents and it was concerned about socioeconomic status of the family, children's dietary habits and daily activities, and information about parents' age, weight and height.

The study found that the prevalence of overweight / obesity among primary school children in Basrah city was 24.1% (13.6% were overweight and 10.5% were obese).

The prevalence was nearly the same Summary III for males and females; however, it consistently increased with the increase in child's age.

The study also found that the prevalence of overweight/obesity among primary school children in Basrah city was directly proportional to socioeconomic status of their families.

This was demonstrated by the consistent increase in the prevalence with the increase in parental education, the higher prevalence among children of working mothers and of fathers involved in professional job, the increase in the prevalence with the increase in family percapita income and children's daily allowance (pocket money).

In addition, house ownership was found to be an independent risk factor to overweight/obesity.

No significant association was found between the prevalence of overweight/obesity and number of meals/day but it was significantly associated with the frequency of eating fast food/week.

Overweight and obesity were significantly and independently associated with late dinner.

While a significant independent inverse association was found between the prevalence of overweight/obesity and frequency of eating snacks.

A positive association was found between overweight/obesity and drinking carbonated drinks, while the reverse was true for drinking juices.

However, these associations were not independent.

Physical activity was found to be inversely related to overweight /obesity.

This was demonstrated by the decline in the prevalence of overweight /obesity with the increase in the length of outside playing, the lower prevalence among children who went to school on foot and the significant independent association between high body mass index and watching television or playing videogames more than 2 hours/day.

IV Children whose parents were overweight or obese showed a higher prevalence of overweight/obesity than those whose parents were underweight or normal.

Significant association was found between overweight/obesity and high birth weight, first and last born child, and number of siblings.

No significant association, however, was found between child's the prevalence of overweight/obesity and type of feeding during infancy.

The association between number of siblings and overweight/obesity was independent.

Based on the results of the present study, it can be concluded that the prevalence of overweight and obesity is relatively high among children in Basrah city.

Therefore, there is an urgent need to spread awareness about obesity, its consequences, and ways and means of prevention especially among young children.

In addition, nutrition and physical education programmes in schools are recommended to promote healthy life styles and dietary habits among school children.

Main Subjects

Public Health

Topics

• Children
• Overweight
• Iraq
• Basra

No. of Pages

100

Table of Contents

• APA
• MLA
• AMA

Language

English

Data Type

Arab Theses

Record ID

BIM-317130