Prevalence of overweight and obesity among adolescents in South Indian population

Abstract

Introduction: Childhood obesity is one of the global public health challenges of the 21st century,affecting every country in the world. Globally, in just 40 years the prevalence of obesity has raisedmore than 10-fold from 11 million to 124 million school-age children. Material and Methods: Thisstudy is a school-based cross-sectional study. The study population is 150 children from 11-14 yearsold school children from a selected private school in urban Pondicherry. Result: In the present studyit was observed the prevalence of overweight and obesity shows that the prevalence of overweight is18% (N=27) and Obesity is 6% (N=9) based on BMI. Overweight and Obesity is an emerging majorhealth problem in school children in our Country. Conclusion: In the present study, there is anincrease in the prevalence of overweight /obesity in school children.