Assessment of risk factors for overweight and obesity in schoolchildren for the development of effective prevention programs

Introduction. This article presents the results of a large-scale research on monitoring the nutrition of students in educational institutions. Nutrition is one of the leading factors determining the health and harmony in the processes of growth and development of the child population. One of the most common consequences of unhealthy eating behavior is overweight and obesity. The study and early detection of risk factors is necessary for the prevention of overweight and obesity, which are an acute problem of modern science and education. The purpose of the study is to assess risk factors for overweight and obesity in schoolchildren in order to develop effective programs for the prevention of childhood obesity and nutritional diseases. Materials and Methods. The research data were collected and processed via the following methods: a questionnaire, analytical and statistical methods using parametric and non-parametric methods of statistics and t-test (in the case of normal distribution of data) and Fisher (U). Differences were considered statistically significant at p<0.05. The STATISTICA-10.0 package and Microsoft Excel were used. Results. As part of the global monitoring of schoolchildren’s nutrition (the survey covered 43.9 thousand schoolchildren from 49 regions of the Russian Federation), the following key risk factors for nutrition-related health disorders in schoolchildren were identified: a violation of the structure of nutrition, unhealthy eating behavior and eating habits, violations in the organization of nutrition in educational institutions and at home. Statistically significant correlation coefficients were found between indicators of normal body weight and family income, between overweight and unhealthy eating habits, and eating behavior, the prevalence of diseases of the digestive system. Forecast indicators of a decrease in the prevalence of obesity with a decrease in the proportion of children with unhealthy eating habits have been established. Conclusions. The results of the study characterize the key risk factors for the development of overweight and obesity in children associated with nutrition. In the future, the results obtained can be used to predict the effectiveness of implemented preventive measures at the level of individual educational institutions and territories of the Russian Federation.