Prevalence of obesity among urban and rural school going adolescents of Vadodara, India: a comparative study

Abstract

Background: Obesity is a major global problem among children. India has paradox of having both undernutrition and obesity as a major problem. This epidemic of obesity is also affecting rural population. It has both short and long term adverse health outcome.Methods: The present study is a cross-sectional, observational and questionnaire-based study conducted in urban and rural school going adolescents.Results: 188 subjects (89 rural and 99 urban school) school were enrolled. 17.6%(33), 20.2%(38), 59%(111) and 3.2%(6) children were obese, overweight, normal and underweight respectively. 65.22% of urban males & 62.26% females were either obese or overweight as compared to 15.78% of rural males and 3.92% females (p<0.0001). OR was 17.7 (95% CI of 7.6 to 40.7) in favor of urban residence. Statistically significant (p<0.05) differences is found in term of annual income of family, frequency of physical training sessions conducted in schools, frequency of restaurant & school canteen food. No statistically significant association was found between two categories (higher BMI & normal BMI) with other factors viz. breakfast before school, liking for fast food, involvement in outdoor sports, operating gadgets during meals and having obese family members.Conclusions: Obesity and overweight is more prevalent in urban adolescent. There is no difference among male and female group. There is tendency of high frequency of obesity and overweight among those adolescents who have higher annual family income, frequency of restaurant and school canteen food and lesser frequency of physical training sessions conducted in schools.

A study on prevalence of overweight and obesity in school going adolescents and its association with socio-demographic factors in Lucknow district

“…Wang et al (2018) also observed that the prevalence of overweight in urban areas was higher than in rural areas (9.3% versus 7.1%) while studies by Pathak et al and Alok et al showed positive correlation between type of residence and BMI categories which were statistically significant. [15][16][17] In the present study higher number of males (17.5%) was overweight or obese than a female (18.4%) which is similar to NFHS-4 data. 18 In our study overweight and obesity was found more in adolescents from nuclear family than who were from joint family, however, findings were not statistically significant.…”

Nutritional status and common morbidities among school-going adolescents of rural areas of Vadodara, Gujarat: a cross sectional study

“…11 Whereas Pathak S et al, study the same was 15.78% in boys and 3.92% in girls. 12 In present study the prevalence of underweight was 17.12% in boys and 16.13% in girls with overall prevalence was 16.66%. In contrast, Sanghamitra P et al, study same was 5.18% in boys and 1.12% in girls with overall underweight prevalence was 2.54%.…”

“…Whereas Pathak S et al, study done in rural area of India found prevalence of overweight and obese was 6.7% and 2.2%, respectively with combined prevalence of overweight and obesity was 8.98%. 12 Another similar study by Prashanth SV et al, done in high schools of rural and urban areas of Davangere, Karnataka, India mentioned combined prevalence of overweight and obesity in high schools of rural areas was 7.1%. 13 A systematic review on Epidemiology of childhood overweight and obesity in India done by Harish R et al, described overall prevalence of overweight and obesity ranges between 3 to 24.7% and 1.5 to 14% in India.…”

“…11 In Pathak S et al, study overall prevalence of underweight amongst adolescent from rural area was also 6.7%. 12 Stunting may be consequence of chronic undernutrition with or without chronic systemic illness. Present study had found that 16.24% participants were stunted, which was very low on comparing with Bhattacharya A et al, study and Pal A et al, study, both studies were from rural areas of West Bengal, reporting the prevalence of stunting was 47.41% and 54% respectively.…”

“…Mean age of boys and girls was almost same and that was 14.9(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17) years. Mean weight of boys was 42.26 (23-75) Kgs and of girls was 39.53 (22-97.8) Kgs.…”