Prevalence of Childhood Obesity and Food Habits in School Going Children of 10 -12 Years

Abstract

Childhood obesity is a growing epidemic affecting children at an alarming rate in the world. Childhood obesity has important consequences for health and wellbeing both during childhood and also in later adult life. The rising prevalence of childhood obesity poses a major public health challenge in both developed and developing countries by increasing the burden of chronic non-communicable diseases. The present study was conducted to find out prevalence of childhood obesity and to study the food habits among school going children. It is conducted in Anakkayam panchayath, Malappuram district, Kerala. 200 samples were selected and information collected using questionnaire. Based on the BMI for age samples classified into obese, overweight, risk of overweight, normal, wasted and severely wasted. Among the total samples there are no obese children, 4.5 percent were overweight, 16 percent are risk of overweight, 63 percent are normal, 9 percent are wasted and 7.5 percent are severely wasted samples. There is more preference for dinner than breakfast among overweight samples (55.6 percent). 44.4 percent skip meals among overweight samples. 31.93 percent prefer sweet items for snacking and preference for fast food among overweight samples were 100 percent. Soft drink consumption is high among overweight samples (88.9 percent).