Is There a Correlation between Body Weight and Awareness of Healthy Life Style Components in Children?

Abstract

Background: Incidence of obesity in children is increasing worldwide. Healthy eating and exercise are the major components of a healthy life style in the community. Objective: we aim to assess the knowledge of healthy eating and exercise in children of varying weight and to explore the correlation between knowledge and bodyweight. Method: School children are invited to fill in a 2 questions quiz about healthy life style. BMI is calculated and children are classified into obese, overweight, normal and underweight. Answers are scored and results compared for different categories of the BMI. Results: 445 children participated. Age range (mean) was 7 - 13 (10) years. 67 were obese, 59 overweight, 237 normal weight and 34 were underweight. In the food question, 22%, 20%, 23% 15% of obese, overweight, underweight and normal weight children respectively gave wrong answers compared to 17.5%, 15% and 14.7%, 13.3% for the exercise question. Neither of the results was statistically significant. Boys are more knowledgeable about exercise than girls (P = 0.03). Conclusion: There is no difference in the level of knowledge about healthy eating and exercise among children with varying body weights. Tackling children behavior and attitude towards food and exercise is as important as improving their knowledge.