Correlates of overweight & obesity among school going children of Wardha city, Central India.

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE Overweight and obesity are important determinants of health leading to adverse metabolic changes and increase the risk of non communicable diseases. Following the increase in adult obesity, the proportion of overweight and obese children and adolescents has also been increasing. Hence, the present study was undertaken to study the magnitude of overweight/obesity and its correlates among school going children of Wardha city in central India and suggest interventions. METHODS The cross-sectional study was carried out in all the 31 middle-schools (5th to 7th standard) and high-schools (8th to 10th standard) of Wardha city. Probability proportionate to size of population technique (PPS) was used to decide the number of children to be studied from each school, each class and then each section. Systematic random sampling technique was used to select the children from each section. Pre-designed and pre-tested questionnaire was used to elicit the information on family characteristics and individual characteristics. Height and weight was measured and BMI was calculated. Overweight and obesity was assessed by BMI for age. Student who had BMI for age >or=85th and < 95th percentile of reference population were classified as overweight and BMI for age >or=95th percentile of reference population were classified as obese. RESULTS Overweight and obesity was found to be 3.1 per cent (95% CI: 2.5-3.8%) and 1.2 per cent (95% CI: 0.8-1.8%) respectively; together constitute 4.3 per cent (95% CI: 3.6-5.2%) for overweight/ obesity. Final model of the multivariate logistic regression showed that the important correlates of overweight/obesity were urban residence, father and/or mother involved in service/business, English medium school and child playing outdoor games for less than 30 min. INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSION The magnitude of overweight/obesity among school going children of Wardha city was found to be 4.3 per cent. Family characteristics play important role in predisposing the children to overweight/obesity and hence the interventions need to be directed towards the families.