Abstract:Background: Childhood obesity is a risk factor for subsequent development of diabetes mellitus, hypertension etc. Rural children show lower levels of obesity and higher rates of malnutrion. Objectives: Study seeks to access the prevalence of obesity and overweight among higher secondary students in rural Kerala).Methods: 1577 students were selected from schools picked randomly in and around vadavukode block in Ernakulam district, Kerala, of which 761 from private and 816 from government and aided school. Their… Show more
“…A higher prevalence of overweight/obesity similar to the present study findings were reported by Jagadesan S et al (private school-26.4%, government schools-4.6%) [14], and Tharkar S et al (12.1% among the children and 15.5 % among the adolescents) [15]. But a comparatively lower prevalence were reported by Viswambharan KJ [16], (7.7% were overweight or obese, 1.9% were obese and 5.8% were overweight, 8.2% among boys and 7.3% among girls) Cherian AT [17], Obesity 3.0% for boys and 5.3% for girls) and Abraham RJ [18] (overweight 7.4% and obesity 2.5%).…”
Aim: The prevalence of hypertension and obesity is increasing worldwide. Recent data on sustained hypertension and obesity among school-going children and adolescents from the state of Kerala, India are limited. The aim of the present study was to estimate the prevalence of obesity and hypertension among apparently healthy school going adolescents.
Methodology: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 252 school going adolescents aged 11-16 years (173 boys and 79 girls) selected from two private aided rural schools of Thrissur, District, Kerala, India. Measurements like height, weight, and blood pressure were done using standard guidelines. Guidelines of Indian Academy of Pediatrics and standard guidelines of blood pressure measurement using gender height specific blood pressure percentile charts were used to identify the overweight/obese and pre-hypertensive/ hypertensive adolescents respectively. Analysis was done using SPSS version 27.0. Gender wise differences were checked using chi-square and t-test.
Results: Among 252 adolescents, 83 (20.7%) were either overweight or obese and pre-hypertensive or hypertensive. The overall prevalence of obesity and overweight was found to be 9.5% and 15.1% respectively. The overall prevalence of hypertension and prehypertension was found to be 15 (6.0%) and 24 (9.5%) respectively. Systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure was found to be statistically lower (P<0.001) among those with normal BMI, than those with overweight or obesity. The mean systolic and diastolic BP was slightly more among boys than girls and it was not statistically significant.
Conclusion: The high prevalence of hypertension, obesity and the strong association between obesity and high blood pressure seen among school-going adolescents necessitates immediate attention. Strategies should be designed and implemented for prevention, early identification, and treatment of pediatric obesity and hypertension in forestalling the morbidity/mortality from non communicable diseases and its complications.
“…A higher prevalence of overweight/obesity similar to the present study findings were reported by Jagadesan S et al (private school-26.4%, government schools-4.6%) [14], and Tharkar S et al (12.1% among the children and 15.5 % among the adolescents) [15]. But a comparatively lower prevalence were reported by Viswambharan KJ [16], (7.7% were overweight or obese, 1.9% were obese and 5.8% were overweight, 8.2% among boys and 7.3% among girls) Cherian AT [17], Obesity 3.0% for boys and 5.3% for girls) and Abraham RJ [18] (overweight 7.4% and obesity 2.5%).…”
Aim: The prevalence of hypertension and obesity is increasing worldwide. Recent data on sustained hypertension and obesity among school-going children and adolescents from the state of Kerala, India are limited. The aim of the present study was to estimate the prevalence of obesity and hypertension among apparently healthy school going adolescents.
Methodology: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 252 school going adolescents aged 11-16 years (173 boys and 79 girls) selected from two private aided rural schools of Thrissur, District, Kerala, India. Measurements like height, weight, and blood pressure were done using standard guidelines. Guidelines of Indian Academy of Pediatrics and standard guidelines of blood pressure measurement using gender height specific blood pressure percentile charts were used to identify the overweight/obese and pre-hypertensive/ hypertensive adolescents respectively. Analysis was done using SPSS version 27.0. Gender wise differences were checked using chi-square and t-test.
Results: Among 252 adolescents, 83 (20.7%) were either overweight or obese and pre-hypertensive or hypertensive. The overall prevalence of obesity and overweight was found to be 9.5% and 15.1% respectively. The overall prevalence of hypertension and prehypertension was found to be 15 (6.0%) and 24 (9.5%) respectively. Systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure was found to be statistically lower (P<0.001) among those with normal BMI, than those with overweight or obesity. The mean systolic and diastolic BP was slightly more among boys than girls and it was not statistically significant.
Conclusion: The high prevalence of hypertension, obesity and the strong association between obesity and high blood pressure seen among school-going adolescents necessitates immediate attention. Strategies should be designed and implemented for prevention, early identification, and treatment of pediatric obesity and hypertension in forestalling the morbidity/mortality from non communicable diseases and its complications.
“…In spite of a well-planned curriculum and provision in school timetable, Physical and Health Education has been mostly neglected in the schools in the state of Kerala. This has resulted in an unprecedented hike in the percentage of obese and overweight children and adolescents, with current estimates at approximately 10% in Kerala (Nair & Chellappan, 2021; Viswambharan, Bina & Raphael, 2020; Abraham & Pillai, 2019) [7,13,1] . Decreased physical activity has been identified as a main cause of obesity in children and adolescents (Sallis et al, 2012) [10] .…”
A quasi-experimental study was initiated to find out the effect of structured physical education (SPE) on attitude of the elementary school students towards physical activity, and the differential influence of gender and age on the outcome. Pre-intervention and post-intervention data were collected from 171 elementary school children (age range 10-12 years) from six intact classes, two each from fifth, sixth and seventh grade levels, by administering the Scale of Attitude towards Physical Activity. The participants were separated into control groups (n = 80) and experimental groups (n = 91), comprised of children from different grade levels. The treatment consisted of 48 SPE classes each of 40 minutes duration, given at the rate of three classes per week, ended with post-testing of the measures. Data analysis by employing one-way ANCOVA revealed that SPE is effective in nurturing attitude of the elementary school students towards physical activities. Neither gender nor age of the participants was found to exert any differential influence on the effectiveness of SPE in fostering attitude of the elementary school students towards physical activity.
Background: Malnutrition can be divided into two broad groups, undernutrition and overweight or obesity. Malnutrition in early childhood and
adolescence can lead to a large number of complications in later life. This study is intended to nd out the prevalence of underweight, overweight
and obesity among school going children aged 13-17 years in a southern district in Kerala and to assess the factors associated with malnutrition
among the study population.
Methods: A cross sectional study was carried out among 340 school going children in the age group of 13-17 years in Thiruvananthapuram district,
Kerala during October to November 2019. The children were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire including sociodemographic
details, questions on dietary habits, pattern of physical activity, self-awareness and family history. Anthropometric measurements such as height
and weight of the students were taken and BMI was calculated. Data was entered in Microsoft Excel and analysed by SPSS software version 21.
Results And Conclusion: 53.8% of the study participants were underweight, 5.9% were overweight and 2.1% belonged to the obese category. The
factors such as grade of the student (p value:0.004), mother's occupation (p value:0.001), practice of skipping breakfast (p value:0.008), physical
inactivity (p value:0.033), use of online food delivery facilities (p value:0.022), lack of awareness on self-health (p value:0.018), family history of
obesity (p value:<0.001) and family history of non-communicable diseases (p value:0.002) were found to have a statistically signicant association
with malnutrition. Therefore, it is important to take initiatives to tackle the problem of malnutrition among adolescents to bring up a healthy future
generation.
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