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PREVALENCE OF OVERWEIGHT AND OBESITY IN APPARENTLY HEALTHY SCHOOL CHILDREN IN TARAUNI LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF KANO STATE
Abstract
The prevalence of child obesity is increasing rapidly worldwide. And this is associated with several risk factors for heart disease and other chronic diseases later in life. These chronic diseases include hyperlipidaemia, hyperinsulinaemia, hypertension, and early atherosclerosis. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of overweight and obesity in apparently healthy school children in the study area. The study aimed to find out whether there is an association between overweight and obesity and social class. It also aimed at generating baseline data for overweight and obesity in school children in the study area. The study, a cross-sectional, school based survey involving 720 subjects from primary and secondary schools in Tarauni Local Government Area (LGA) Kano State was carried out from July to November 2013. The study subjects were selected from the 57 public and private primary schools and 50 public and private junior secondary schools using multistage sampling technique. Body mass index percentiles were used to determine overweight and obesity as defined by The International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) in children. The prevalence of overweight and obesity in this study were 8.9% and 3.3% respectively while the combined prevalence (overweight and obesity) was 12.2%. Among the study subjects 15.6 %( 42 ) from social class I-III were overweight while 7.0 % (19) were obese compared to their counterparts in social class IV-V where 5.1 % (23) were overweight and 1.1 % (5) were obese. The difference were statistically significant (χ2 =4.41,df=3 p< 0.001).Among the study subjects 10.9% (39) of the female were overweight and 3.6% (13) were obese while 7% (25) of their male counterpart were overweight and 3% (11) were obese. The difference was statistically significant for overweight (χ2=10.18, df=2, p<0.002) but not for obesity. The prevalence of overweight and obesity among the subjects from private schools were 12.8 % (46) and 5.8 % (21) respectively, while among the subjects from public schools overweight were 5.0 % (18) and 0.8 % (3) respectively. The difference was also statistically significant (χ2=4.43, df=2 and p<0.001).
There were 469 subjects in the adolescent age-group. Out of this, 37.6 % (176) were underweight, 55.5 % (260) had normal weight, 4.8 % (23) were overweight and 2.1 % (10) were obese. Among the adolescent subjects 45.6% (214) were females while 54.4 % (255) were males. Of the total number of adolescent females, 15.0 % (32) were underweight, 70.1 % (150) were of normal weight, 10.7 % (23) and 4.2 % (9) were overweight and obese respectively. Of the male adolescents 32.4% (83) were underweight, 58.5 % (149) were of normal weight, while 7.1 % (18) and 2.0 % (5) were overweight and obese respectively. The results showed that females of the adolescent age
group had higher prevalence of overweight (10%) and obesity (4.2%) compared with their male counterparts who had 7.1% overweight and 2.0% obesity. This was statistically significant (χ2=12.16, df=2.32 p=0.001).There were 251 subjects from the age-group 6-9years. Fifty six percent (140) were underweight, 17 % (43) were of normal weight, 20 % (50) were overweight and 7 % (18) were obese.
Body-mass-index (BMI) of the subjects was generated and mean BMI calculated and tabulated. The mean BMI of the subjects showed highest value around the age of 11years for both the male and the female subjects in the study. However, mean BMI for the male subjects were highest between the ages of 9-11 years. The mean BMI for the female subjects were highest between the ages of nine to thirteen years.
The prevalence of overweight and obesity documented in this study is in keeping with findings in similar studies done elsewhere in the country. The study showed that female gender and high social class were associated with a higher prevalence of overweight and obesity.
Twin approaches should be made on one hand to curb the high prevalence of overweight and obesity as well as measures to tackle the high prevalence of underweight among the school children in the study area.
