Prevalence of Obesity in Elementary Schools in Mardin, South-Eastern of Turkey: A Preliminary Study

Abstract

Objective: This research determines the frequency of obesity among primary school-aged children and evaluates the relationship between obesity and family and environmental factors.Material and Methods: Three thousand four hundred sixty students, aged 6-15 years in three primary schools in Mardin city center were taken into the study. Information about eating habits and family-environmental factors were obtained by questionnaire. For each student we calculated the body mass index (BMI) and the ≥97 percentile was defined as obese, and between 85-97 th percentile as overweight. These values were calculated with the SPSS statistical program. Chi-square and t-tests were used for analysis. p<0.05 was considered statistically significant.Results: 48.2% of the students were female. In the assessment of body mass index (BMI) the overweight rate for children was 15.78%, the obese rate was 10.57%. The prevalence of obesity according to gender was 9.05% for girls and 11.97% for boys (p<0.01). The mean BMI of the girls in the age group 13-15 is higher than in males of the same age. Those in the higher socio-economic group had a higher prevalence of obesity (p<0.01). Paternal obesity affected child obesity (p<0.01). Children who eat irregular meals (p=0.05), watch more than 2 hours per day TV (p=0.03), were breastfed for less than 6 months (p<0.05) and the mothers' obesity (p<0.05) were found to have a significantly higher prevalence of obesity. Conclusion:Obesity is increasing throughout the world as a health problem. Being obese in childhood and having obese parent(s) are two of the risk factors of being obese in adulthood. Persistence of obesity into adulthood is the most serious aspect of the problem. The therapeutic success rate in obesity is unfortunately not high. Therefore, a preventive strategy involving early identification of those at risk by incorporating body mass assessments to routine childhood growth assessment appears to be the most prudent strategy.

Prevalence of childhood obesity and related parental factors across socioeconomic strata in Ankara, Turkey

“…We found that obesity was more prevalent in the high SES group compared to low and medium-SES groups. This finding was consistent with another recent report from Mardin in southeastern Turkey (10). Similarly, in a review of childhood obesity across Middle Eastern countries, Mirmiran et al (22) concluded that the relationship between SES and obesity was complex and varied across different cultures; they found obesity to be more prevalent in urban areas and higher SES in some countries such as Egypt, while it is more prevalent in medium SES in countries such as Pakistan, suggesting perhaps different stages of the nutrition transition across countries.…”

“…Recent studies suggest between 20-25% of youths aged 6-19 years are overweight or obese in Turkey (7)(8)(9), but numbers in the largest metropolitan areas of Turkey are not clear. There could be significant variations in the prevalence of child obesity in Turkey, as regional eating habits and the physical activity environment differ across the country (10).…”

Malnutrition and Cardiometabolic Risk among Turkish Adolescents: a Public Health Concern during Epidemiological Transition

“…Over the previous two decades childhood obesity in Turkey increased from 6-7% to 15-16% [33]. In Turkey there are studies performed at the local level covering various geographical regions of the country [41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59]. A summary and a comparison of the results of available studies on adolescent obesity are shown on Table 2.…”

What Are The Important Risk Factors For The Obesity In The Children Three to Six Age Years: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…If childhood obesity reaches to adulthood then it leads to serious increases in morbidity and mortality due to complications such as metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, cardiovascular disease and certain types of cancers (colon, breast, gall bladder, and endometrium). The fact that most of these complications are preventable indicates that obesity is a health problem that should be considered even from childhood (9,10) .…”