Abstract

A STUDY OF ANTHROPOMETRIC MEASUREMENTS AND PREVALENCE OF OVERWEIGHT AMONGST GIRLS IN AN URBAN SCHOOL

Author(s):Sukhmeet Minhas, Priyanshi Chaudhary, Harinder Sekhon, George Koshy, Vandana Gangadharan

Background: Individuals whose Body Mass Index exceeds the age-gender-specific 95th percentile are overweight; while those with BMI between the 85th and 95th percentiles are at risk of overweight. The prevalence of obesity is increasing worldwide. Children are becoming overweight at younger age. Currently 10% of children worldwide are either overweight or obese. The present study was undertaken to study the anthropometric measurements and determine the prevalence of overweight amongst school girls in the age group of 5-8 years in a school of Pune. Methods: Anthropometric measurements of the study subjects were studied by conducting a cross sectional descriptive study. All the 312 girl students, aged 5 to 8 years enrolled in the school during the study period were studied. Results: 15.4% of the girls were found to be overweight while 5.4% are at risk of overweight. Conclusion: With increasing age, more girls become overweight and at risk of overweight. This increase is steady as the age increases from 5 to 8 years.

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