Overweight, Obesity and Thinness Prevalence with Different Growth Standards Among School Children and Adolescents in Saurashtra Region, India

Abstract

Background: Overweight/obesity and thinness emerged as an important public health problem in India. The present study was conducted to estimate the prevalence and compare any difference in estimating prevalence of these conditions by using different standards among school children and adolescents. Methods: Anthropometric measurements of all students of four schools from 3rd to 12th standards were taken. Prevalence of overweight, obesity and thinness were assessed using two standards – Agarwal 2001 standards and revised IAP 2015 standards. Results: A total of 1496 children including 79.1% boys and 20.9% girls participated. Boys grow taller than girls from 12 years age and also gains more weight than girls from 11 years. The mean BMI of boys remain more than girls for all the years except age 16. Significant difference was observed (independent t test) for difference age years when height, weight and BMI of boys were compared with girls. Revised IAP 2015 standards reported high prevalence of overweight (19.1%) and obesity (14.0%) than Agarwal standards (17.0% & 9.1% respectively). Prevalence of thinness was reported more by Agarwal standards (59%) than IAP standards (3.4%). A good level of agreement (?=0.773) found between two standards considering four categories. The agreement was improved further up to 0.90 when compared for two combined categories – overweight/obese vs. normal weight/thinness. Conclusion: High prevalence of obesity and overweight was reported with IAP 2015 standards and Agarwal standards. Good agreement was found for both standards indicate Agarwal standards can still be used in current scenario like revised IAP 2015 standards.

Keywords

• Prevalence
• Obesity
• Overweight
• Thinness
• School children
• Rajkot