Risk Factors Associated with Overweight among Primary School Children

Abstract

Overweight of primary school children has been considered by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a serious public health challenge, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Overweight are serious health concerns for many children and could be associated with low physical-fitness levels. Overweight in primary schoolchildren could be related to multiple causes such as the modern lifestyle characterized by inactivity and passive overeating over past years (Abdelkarim et al., 2020). Strategy of child in Egypt through school programs about healthy life styles including healthy eating and physical activity that can lower the risk of becoming overweight and developing related disease, and to motivate participants to eat a healthy diet. Children are a very important audience for nutrition education because a healthy diet is essential for their normal growth and development; also children are establishing food patterns that carry into adulthood (Herbst et al., 2019). The BMI for age percentile has been used as a reliable and accurate estimate for body fatness in children. BMI-for age ≥ 85% percentile is considered overweight. Parents must be more aware of the role they can play in preventing overweight in their children. The earliest school-based overweight interventions are based on the program that was conducted during school hours. This program consisted of intensive exercise and nutrition education program delivered over a 5-6 month period (Bigec, 2017).