Prevalence of Obesity and Nutritional Habits Among Primary School Students in Assiut City, Egypt. | ||||
| The Egyptian Journal of Community Medicine | ||||
| Article 2, Volume 38, Issue 2, April 2020, Page 7-15 PDF (449.13 K) | ||||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||||
| DOI: 10.21608/ejcm.2020.89885 | ||||
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| Abstract | ||||
| Childhood obesity is a serious medical condition; it has both immediate and long-term effects on health and well-being. Objective: To estimate the prevalence and possible risk factors of obesity among school children. Method: After obtaining an approval from the concerned authority and the local research committee, a community based cross sectional study was conducted in four primary schools in Assiut city. A multistage stratified cluster random sampling technique was applied, in which 838 students were enrolled and distributed among public and private schools of both boys and girls proportionate to number of students in each type of education. Data was collected by semi-structured questionnaire filled by the investigator himself including socio-demographic, nutritional and lifestyle data, weight and height were taken by standardized method from which BMI for age and sex percentiles were calculated for every student, overweight is defined as ≥ 85th to 95th percentile, while obesity if ≥ 95th percentile. Results: Overweight and obesity were observed in 14.2% of students (9.6% overweight and 4.6 % obese), while underweight in41.5%. Stunting (low height for age) was observed in 12.8%. We found six risk factors associated with obesity: Fast food consumption (Odds Ratio 5.6), eating between meals (Odds Ratio 4.1), older age (Odds Ratio 3.5), irregular physical activity (Odds Ratio 2.5), number of meals (Odds Ratio 2.1), and lack of eating vegetables (Odds Ratio 1.6), while skipping breakfast meal was not found to be a risk factor. Conclusion: Malnutrition either obesity or underweight are a prevalent nutritional public health problem in primary school students in Menia Governorate. | ||||
| Keywords | ||||
| Obesity; Prevalence,Primary; School. Egypt | ||||
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