Body Mass Index Pattern Among Seven Years Old School children

Abstract

Body mass index (BMI) is one of the indices regularly used to evaluate the level of body mass. Recently, there has been a concerning increase in total number of obese children in Malaysia. This study aims to predict the trend of obese children in Malaysia, especially in Kuala Lumpur. This study involved primary schools in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. A total of 4970 seven year old primary school children were involved in this study. Data were collected by the SEGAK test performed by the physical education teacher in the primary schools. In this study, weight and height were the variables that were used for BMI calculation. Underweight, normal, overweight, and obese were used to classify the children’s BMI following the WHO BMI index for Asians. Descriptive statistics, Normality test, and Discriminant Analysis were used for the statistical analysis. The result found that the BMI was distributed normally according to P-P and Q-Q plot graph, and discriminant analysis found that there were 231 children (4.65%) of the total sample of the children predicted to have an increase in BMI and a total of 236 (4.74%) predicted from normal BMI to underweight. The result predicted that there would be a slight increase in children concerned about the potential of becoming obese. Action should be taken regarding the prediction of the percentage as the number can increase either suddenly or slowly.