Prevalence of overweight, obesity and scoio-demographic related factors among Iranian northern school children

Obesity is the most health problem and the main aim of this study was to evaluate overweight, obesity and some related factors among Iranian northem primaiy school children in 2010. This is a descriptive and cross-sectional study that performed on 7399 students (3934 = male and 3465 = female) from 112 schools in urban and rural area. The schools and students were chosen by cluster and stratify sampling. Data collected by questioner for all samples through interview. Overweight and obesity were defined using age and sex specific Body Mass Index (BMI) cut of point proposed by the Center of Disease Control and prevention (CDC). Linear regression analysis revealed that weight, height and BMI increase 2.70 kg, 4.62 cm and 0.42 kg m -2 in boys (p<0.001) and 3.12 kg, 5.19 cm and 0.52 kg m -2 in girls (p = 0.001) for one year increase in age, respectively. Wholly, the prevalence of overweight and obesity was 8.4 and 14.1%, respectively. Results of logistic regression analyses showed that the risk of overweight and obesity is 1.203 (1.078-1.341, CI 95%) in male compareto female, 1.382 (1.240-1.541, CI 95%) in urban compare to rural area and2.297 (1.911-2.761, CI 95%) in good economic group compare to poor economic group. These data show that obesity and overweight are prevalent among primary schoolchildren in the north of Iran and that social differences influence on it. Obesity more common in boys than girls. The present fmdings highlight the important public health message of children especially in urban area and high income families in the north of Iran. © 2011 Asian Network for Scientific Information