An Epidemiological Study of Obesity Among ' Primary School Children In Cairo

Abstract

This study is a cross-sectional carried out among children attending primary governmental and private schools in Cairo. The aims of the study were to determine the prevalence of obesity among primary school children and to assess some risk factors i.e. socioeconomic status, to identify body composition of obese children and to compare BMI and skin-fold thickness with Body Fat Analyzer results.

3255 children were selected by a multistage random sampling• method. The target age of the study sample was between 6-11 years. The sample was studied regarding to age, sex, weight, height, BMI, school type and socioeconomic status (education and occupation of parents). BMI was calculated for each child according to the following equation: BMI =Weight in kilograms/Height in meter square.

Then the, results of the equation were applied to the standardized curves of BMI for -age percentiles (Hammer, 1991).