OVERWEIGHT, OBESITY AND ITS ASSOCIATED RISK FACTORS AMONG SCHOOL GOING CHILDREN OF PESHAWAR, KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA, PAKISTAN

Abstract

Objective: To compare the overweight and obesity status and associated factors among children of government and private schools in district Peshawar. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional analytical study was conducted from February 2020 to October 2022.A sample size of 300 school-going children between ages 6-15 years from 30 different schools of Peshawar using a multistage sampling technique. The data were gathered on a structured questionnaire. SPSS version 24 was used for data analysis. Results: The mean age of the children ranged from 15.64 ± 0.48 S.D. 125(41.7%) of the children were from Government schools and 175(58.3%) were from Private Schools. Among 3oo study participants 16(53%) were males and 139(46%) were females. overweight and obesity among government and private school children were 9(36.0%),7 (33.3%) and 16 (64.0%), and 14 (66.7%) respectively(p-value=0.01). Among the Overweight and obese groups respectively there was a positive relationship between the consumption of eggs(r=0.165, p = 0.004), and fried food (r=0.180,  p = 0.002). The Duration of Outdoor Sports was inversely related to overweight and obesity (r=0-.333**, P = 0.000). Conclusion: Comparison between overweight and obesity among both groups shows significant differences due to the mandatory lifestyles of private school children. Both obesity and overweight had an inverse relation with the intensity and duration of physical activities. Effective strategies targeting overweight and obese children are required to make them healthy. Keywords: Obesity, BMI, Children