TY - JOUR
T1 - Prevalence of obesity in school-going children of Karachi
AU - Warraich, Haider Javed
AU - Javed, Faisal
AU - Faraz-ul-Haq, Mohammed
AU - Khawaja, Fariha Batool
AU - Saleem, Sarah
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to acknowledge our Community Health Group of medical students, which included in addition to the authors, Sahibzadi Mahrukh Noor, Rabia Bukhari, Anam Akmal, Bilal Salman, Kashif Anwar and Nabeel Ahmad. We would like to acknowledge support of the Department of Community Health Sciences, Aga Khan University, who helped us at every stage of the project. A word of thanks to the schools and the children who helped us collect the data.
PY - 2009/3/24
Y1 - 2009/3/24
N2 - Background: Obesity is an emerging problem in Pakistan. The authors sought to determine prevalence of obesity and malnutrition in school-going children, from grades 6th to 8th of different schools of Karachi and assess associations that affect the weight of the children. Methodology/Principal Findings: A cross sectional study design with children studying in grades 6th to 8th grade, in different schools of Karachi. We visited 10 schools of which 4 consented; two subsidized government schools and two private schools. A questionnaire was developed in consultation with a qualified nutritionist. Height and weight were measured on calibrated scales. A modified BMI criterion for Asian populations was used. Data was collected from 284 students. Of our sample, 52% were found to be underweight whereas 34% of all the children were normal. Of the population, 6% was obese and 8% overweight. Of all obese children, 70% belonged to the higher socio-economic status (SES) group, while of the underweight children, 63.3% were in the lower SES. Amongst obese children in our study, 65% ate meat every day, compared to 33% of normal kids. Conclusion: Obesity and undernutrition co-exist in Pakistani school-children. Our study shows that socio-economic factors are important since obesity and overweight increase with SES. Higher SES groups should be targeted for overweight while underweight is a problem of lower SES. Meat intake and lack of physical activity are some of the other factors that have been highlighted in our study.
AB - Background: Obesity is an emerging problem in Pakistan. The authors sought to determine prevalence of obesity and malnutrition in school-going children, from grades 6th to 8th of different schools of Karachi and assess associations that affect the weight of the children. Methodology/Principal Findings: A cross sectional study design with children studying in grades 6th to 8th grade, in different schools of Karachi. We visited 10 schools of which 4 consented; two subsidized government schools and two private schools. A questionnaire was developed in consultation with a qualified nutritionist. Height and weight were measured on calibrated scales. A modified BMI criterion for Asian populations was used. Data was collected from 284 students. Of our sample, 52% were found to be underweight whereas 34% of all the children were normal. Of the population, 6% was obese and 8% overweight. Of all obese children, 70% belonged to the higher socio-economic status (SES) group, while of the underweight children, 63.3% were in the lower SES. Amongst obese children in our study, 65% ate meat every day, compared to 33% of normal kids. Conclusion: Obesity and undernutrition co-exist in Pakistani school-children. Our study shows that socio-economic factors are important since obesity and overweight increase with SES. Higher SES groups should be targeted for overweight while underweight is a problem of lower SES. Meat intake and lack of physical activity are some of the other factors that have been highlighted in our study.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=63449091297&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0004816
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0004816
M3 - Article
C2 - 19308262
AN - SCOPUS:63449091297
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 4
JO - PLoS ONE
JF - PLoS ONE
IS - 3
M1 - e4816
ER -
