Factors associated with obesity in school children

Abstract

Objective: To analyze the relationship between obesity, physical activity and hours of sleep in schoolchildren and parental schooling and obesity. Methods: We measured the weight, height, body mass index and adiposity (subscapular to triceps skinfold ratio) of children. The children were classified as normal, underweight, overweight or obese, according to body mass index per age. Four hundred and fifty-two schoolchildren were evaluated; 68 children with excess weight and obesity and 97 normal children were selected to answer a questionnaire regarding daily physical activity and sleeping hours, as well as parental schooling, physical activity, weight and height. Results: The prevalence of excess weight and obesity was of 21.1% in boys and 22.9% in girls. Adiposity was different between normal children and the other groups (p < 0.01). In children with excess weight and obesity, adiposity was directly correlated with daily sitting hours and inversely correlated with daily sleeping hours (p < 0.05). Schooling was lower in mothers of overweight and obese children was lower than in mothers of normal children (p < 0.01). The frequency of excess weight and obesity in the parents of overweight/obese children was higher than in the parents of normal children (p < 0.01). Most parents had a sedentary life style. Conclusion: We observed an association between excess weight and obesity in children and inactivity. The time spent sleeping was a positive factor for maintaining a balance between weight and height. Maternal schooling and the presence of excess weight/obesity in parents were significantly associated with childhood obesity. J Pediatr (Rio J). 2004;80(1):17-22: Excess weight, body mass index, adiposity, sleep.

Prevalence and risk factors of obesity among school-aged children in Xi’an, China

“…In our work, high maternal education was a protective factor for obesity, this was consistent with some previous studies which suggested that low maternal education was a risk factor for childhood obesity [5,8], however, this result conflicted with the results from other studies, in which overweight and obesity was more prevalent among children with highly educated mother [1,18]. Controversial results may arise from differences in the design of the study, such as characteristics of participants, methodology, and sample size.…”

Prevalence of Obesity and Knowledge of Health Risk Associated with Obesity among Female Adolescents in Jordan

“…This finding was consistent with that of [25] who found that a significant relationship between occurrence of overweight and obesity and maternal education level. Similar findings were apparent in a study conducted by [26] that revealed an association between maternal education level and adolescence overweight or obesity.…”

Overweight and obesity and their associated factors in adolescents in Tehran, Iran, 2004–2005

“…Normal-weight students were more physically active and less engaged in sedentary activities, whereas the opposite was true for overweight and obese students [6,9,11,14,20]. Again as found in other studies, we observed a general trend towards a more sedentary lifethe students participating in this study tended to go to school by motor vehicle, they lacked a fixed plan for exercise and they spent many hours in front of the TV and computer [3].…”

“…In addition, Giugliano and Carneiro [6] demonstrated that maternal schooling was significantly associated with childhood obesity [4,6].…”