ANALYSIS OF FACTORS LEADING TOWARDS OBESITY AMONG SCHOOL - GOING CHILDREN (AGED 13 - 16 YEARS) OF KARACHI

Abstract

To analyze the factors leading to obesity in school children and to assess the role
of Physical therapist in health education in schools
It was a cross sectional study and factors leading towards obesity among school
- going children aged 13 - 16 years were analyzed. A total of 300 students were
selected from different schools of Karachi through Convenience sampling
technique. Data entry was done on SPSS version 20 and frequencies and
percentages were taken as descriptive statistics for categorical variables.
300 participants were included in the study where girls were 53.7%and boys
were 46.3%. It was found that majority 40% of the children come under the
category of normal BMI while 37% were overweight and obese. In addition, 55%
of the children had a positive family history of obesity. It was also interesting to
find out that 46% students were not participating in any physical activity and
45% schools didn’t even had the PT period in their schedule. Furthermore, 91%
students were consuming regularly.
Our study concluded that the major risk factor of obesity in 13-16 years children
is lack of physical activity. However, usage of junk food is also increasing in this
age group. Furthermore genetic predisposition cannot be ignored. It was further
noticed that most of our children are having less sleep than recommended
which itself has a very strong relation with weight gain.