Relationship between screen watching and overweight or obesity in a sample of Iraqi adolescents

Abstract EN

Background: Obesity represents a clear and present danger to the health of children and adolescents.

Its prevalence among American youth has doubled in the past 3 decades, and there are now more overweight and obese adults in the United States than adults of normal weight.

Objectives of the study: 1- Finding whether screen watching among adolescents has an effect on increasing prevalence overweight and obesity.

2- The effect of other variables like physical activity, eating in front of screen, eating under stress on obesity and overweight among the subjects sample.

Patients &Methods: During 3 months period a cross sectional survey was conducted on 4 high schools at Baghdad with total sample of 500 subjects using time table to assess screen watching hours per week, Results:Higher percentagesof overweight & obesity were found among female adolescents than males, significant associations was obvious among total sample & male sample betweenthe level of physical activity & BMI,while there was no significant association among female sample for the same variables , There was obvious significant association between BMI a time spending in screen watching, eatingin front of screen, , eating under stressin the total & male samples.

Conclusion: Increased levels of physical activity are associated with a lower BMI and less time spent on screen watching .in addition .stress-induced eating may be one factor contributing to the development of obesity; furthermore habits like eating in front of screen could increase BMI of an adolescent.