Prevalence of over and under weight among school children in Mosul

Abstract EN

Aim : To evaluate the prevalence of over and underweight in children aged 6-14 years in Mosul city and to observe the important risk factors.

Methods : A cross-sectional study of four governmental primary schools in Mosul city with a total of 2056 child aged 6-14 years were included.

Analysis of the data was done by using SPSS and excel computer systems, X2 test was used for statistical analysis.

Results : The study reveals that the prevalence of underweight is 6.8 % ; on the other hand the prevalence of overweight and obesity were 11.3 % and 9.8 % respectively.

Also the study shows that about three quarters of overweight and obese students spend three or more hours daily in watching television, and (44.2 %) of them eat more than three meals per day.

Conclusions : Overweight and obesity are prevalent problems in Mosul, it is valuable to conduct a study to evaluate the risk factors.