Lifestyle Patterns and Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity among Rural School Children of Age 6 to 9 Years of District Una, Himachal Pradesh

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Many studies have reported prevalence of overweight and obesity in children and adolescents from urban areas as well as of underweight or malnutrition from rural areas. With changing lifestyles everywhere, a need was felt to study the prevalence of overweight and obesity among rural children also. METHODOLOGY: Present cross-sectional study was planned involving 210 school children (103 boys and 107 girls of age 6-9 years) from various private schools of district Una, Himachal Pradesh, India. IOTF (International Obesity Task Force) cutoffs for BMI were used. Information about lifestyle, eating habits, physical activity and socio-economic status was collected through well designed questionnaire, which was filled by the parents of the children. The population studied mostly belonged to lower and upper middle class. SPSS version 17.0 was used to analyze the data. RESULTS: Overweight and obesity among children was found to be 14.8%. Time spent in physical activity has reduced greatly; also there was increased sedentary lifestyle among rural children. 93.5% of overweight and obese children were considered fine (according to their weight) by their parents. The children, who did not have their food timely, ate less frequently and ate junk food more than 3-times a week, were found to be more overweight and obese. CONCLUSION: Percentage of overweight and obese children (14.8%) seen in the study has provided evidence that it is not only the urban population or the higher socioeconomic class groups that are affected with the lifestyle related problems but changing lifestyle has affected rural children also.

Keywords

• Rural
• body mass index
• lifestyle
• overweight
• obesity
• school children