Author(s): Uma Iyer, Nitya Elayath and Arti Akolkar
Childhood obesity forms a link between adult obesity and cardio-vascular risk. Thus we conducted a school-based cross-sectional survey to estimate the prevalence of obesity in 6-12 year-old children of Vadodara City and to investigate the role of associated risk factors. Background information and anthropometry (1067), diet history and activity pattern (n=140), serum glucose and lipids (n=36) were studied on children. Prevalence of over-weight and obesity as per IOTF, CDC and Must et al standards were 20.3%, 21.6% and 23.4% respectively. Risk factor analysis revealed that heredity and income of parents con-tributed significantly to the prevalence of obesity. BMI of obese children’s parents were sig-nificantly higher than normal BMIchildren’s parents. Mean calorie intake was higher in obese and overweight children as compared to normal children. Energy expenditure pattern and lipid profile were not significantly different between normal, overweight or obese chil-dren. Thus obesity is a problem even in the lower age-groups and large-scale intervention strategies, focusing on improving modifiable risk factors, especially type of diet (with re-gard to calorie & and fat intake) and physical activity should be designed to arrest the trend.