Obesity, A Preventable Burden of Disease among Children

Autor: Dr. Asma Abdul Qadeer, Dr. Rabia Mehmood, Dr. Nadia Junaid, Dr. Sara Bashir, Dr. Saadia Baran, Dr. Saira Mahmood
Rok vydání: 2022
Předmět:
Zdroj: Saudi Journal of Medicine. 7:57-61
ISSN: 2518-3397
2518-3389
DOI: 10.36348/sjm.2022.v07i01.010
Popis: Background: In last few decades, childhood obesity has become a burdensome challenge globally. The most important long-term consequence of childhood obesity is its persistence into adulthood, with all the associated health risks. Persistent obesity is established before the age of 11. Methods: A descriptive cross sectional study with non-probability convenient sampling was carried out over a period of three month in a private sector school Islamabad, Pakistan. The sampling frame was 250 students of grade 4 of roots school system. The response rate was 67%. Results: Mean age in our sample was 10 years. Mean BMI was 18.14 with a standard deviation of 4.4. The frequency of obesity in children was 22% (more than 97th percentile and equivalent to BMI of 30kg/m 2) and that of overweight was 32% (more than 85th percentile and BMI of). Among obese children 28% were reasonably physically active the past week. Regarding eating habits 52% children ate their breakfast every day, 16% of the children never had their breakfast because they didn’t like breakfast or because they were never given breakfast at home. 55% of the children thought that obesity can be prevented by making sure that children are into sports and games, by promoting healthy snacks and banning fast foods, by launching fitness programs and by health education. Conclusion: We found a high frequency of obese and overweight children in the private sector school of Islamabad. Physical inactivity and relationship with other factors like watching TV, gaming and over consumption of junk food was found to be associated with overweight and obesity adds some useful data to the previous researches.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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