Body mass index among school adolescents in Sokoto, North-Western Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Reports have shown significant increase in the prevalence of obesity in developing countries. There are limited representative data available from African countries on the trends in childhood obesity, because most public health- and nutrition-related efforts have been focused on under-nutrition. Aims: To determine the prevalence of overweight and obesity using body mass index (BMI) among school adolescents. Design: A cross sectional study involving apparently healthy school students in Sokoto. Materials and Methods: Participating schools and students were selected by a multi-stage random sampling. Anthropometric measurements were done and body mass index derived from the ratio of weight per height squared. Subjects with age and sex-adjusted BMIs of 85 th to <95 th and ≥95 th percentiles of the International Obesity Task Force were defined as overweight and obese, respectively. Statistical Analysis: Data were analyzed using SPSS version 17.0 software. GraphPad inStat version 3.05 was also used to analyze some variables. Results were expressed as means with standard deviations. P-values <5% were considered significant. Results: The mean BMI of the male subjects was 18.3 ± 2.7kg/m 2 , and 19.3 ± 3.1kg/m 2 for the females. The prevalence of overweight was 3.3%, and that of obesity was 1.4%. Conclusions: The prevalence of overweight and obesity appear to be low in the study area, especially when compared to some recent studies in Africa.

Keywords

• Adolescent
• body mass index
• obesity
• overweight