Open AccessANALYSIS OF FACTORS LEADING TOWARDS OBESITY AMONG SCHOOL - GOING CHILDREN (AGED 13 - 16 YEARS) OF KARACHI
Author(s) -
Muhammd Sarfraz,
Anum Tariq,
Sawadogo A Aziz,
Aga Khan,
Abida Nadeem
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
pakistan journal of rehabilitation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2311-3863
pISSN - 2309-7833
DOI - 10.36283/pjr.zu.1.1/006
Subject(s) - obesity , overweight , medicine , demography , descriptive statistics , junk food , physical activity , pediatrics , gerontology , psychology , physical therapy , statistics , mathematics , sociology
To analyze the factors leading to obesity in school children and to assess the roleof Physical therapist in health education in schoolsIt was a cross sectional study and factors leading towards obesity among school- going children aged 13 - 16 years were analyzed. A total of 300 students wereselected from different schools of Karachi through Convenience samplingtechnique. Data entry was done on SPSS version 20 and frequencies andpercentages were taken as descriptive statistics for categorical variables.300 participants were included in the study where girls were 53.7%and boyswere 46.3%. It was found that majority 40% of the children come under thecategory of normal BMI while 37% were overweight and obese. In addition, 55%of the children had a positive family history of obesity. It was also interesting tofind out that 46% students were not participating in any physical activity and45% schools didn’t even had the PT period in their schedule. Furthermore, 91%students were consuming regularly.Our study concluded that the major risk factor of obesity in 13-16 years childrenis lack of physical activity. However, usage of junk food is also increasing in thisage group. Furthermore genetic predisposition cannot be ignored. It was furthernoticed that most of our children are having less sleep than recommendedwhich itself has a very strong relation with weight gain.