Prevalence and environmental factors affecting obesity among school children / Salah Eldin Mohammed Ahmed Dosoky ; Supervised Ahmed Ali Elayadi , Ghada Mahmoud Khafajy

Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Medicine - Department of Family Medicine

Obesity is a global nutritional concern, which is increasing at alarming rate throughout the world, in Egypt obesity is recognized as a major public health problem Obesity is a complex multifactorial disease, which is independently related to cultural, economic and social parameters. The aim of this study is to evaluate the prevalence and environmental factors affecting obesity among school children. Descriptive cross sectional study. Target population were Egyptian school aged children from 9 - 11 years. The sample size was 127 children. The children were subjected to (1) nutritional status assessment through measuring (weight, height, body mass Index (BMI) / age); (2) sociodemographic data; (3) global school health survey (GSHS); (4) dietary intake: The 24 hour recall method was used; (5) Statistical analysis. In this study; the prevalence of obesity and overweight was 26%. 7.9% obese and 18.1% overweight. As regard sociodemographic data; There was no significant relation between sociodemographic factors and obesity except as regard single parent where 75.4% of children with both parents alive are non-obese while only 40% of children with one parent dead are non - obese and 60% are overweight. 90% of obese children perceived themselves as obese-overweight while only 4.3% of overweight children perceived himself as obese-overweight

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