Overweight and Obesity among School-going Adolescents in a Private School in Sylhet City

Abstract

Introduction: For both industrialised and developing nations, obesity and overweight are serious public health issues. It is responsible for both physical and mental health problems among adolescents. Objective: The study was aimed at assessing the prevalence of overweight and obesity among school going adolescents. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study carried out among the students of Blue Bird School and College in Sylhet, Bangladesh, between the periods of January 2017 and December 2017. Results: A total of 158 students from classes 9 and 10 were included in the study by a purposive sampling method. The mean age of the students was 15.38 ± 0.754. Among them, 52.5% were male and 47.5% were female. Graduate or higher education was held by 48.1% of the respondents' mothers and 65.8% of the respondents' fathers. Most of the respondents' mothers (75.9%) were housewives, whereas most of the fathers (60.7%) were service holders. Among the respondents, 17.7% and 13.9% were overweight and obese, respectively. There was no significant relationship between body mass index and socio-demographic factors like gender, religion, educational qualification and occupation of the parents, family income, and family type. Most of the overweight (89.3%) and obese (95.5%) respondents performed physical exercise regularly, which was statistically significant (p= 0.01). Other lifestyle factors such as sports participation, food preferences, television viewing, and computer use were not found to be significantly linked to being overweight or obese. Conclusion: In our study, adolescents had a greater prevalence of overweight and obesity. Public health programs are required to increase knowledge of the risk factors for overweight and obesity among children and adolescents in order to lessen the future burden of obesity-related chronic diseases.