Overweight and Obesity in School Children of a Hill State in North India: Is the Dichotomy Urban-Rural or Socio-Economic? Results from a Cross-Sectional Survey

INTRODUCTION: Overweight and obesity are a public health problem in India not only in adults but also in children. The authors sought to estimate the prevalence of overweight and obesity in school-going children of 6–17 years of age and examine its demographic and dietary correlates in context of their urban-rural status and socio-economic status. METHODS: In this cross-sectional survey height and weight were measured in 1266 school children in government and private schools of urban and rural areas. Dietary assessment was done using single day 24-hour dietary recall method. The data were analyzed using SPSS (IBM SPSS Statistics Version 19) and WHO AnthroPlus Software. Factorial ANOVA was used for testing interaction within and between subgroups for continuous variables and Chi-square test was used for categorical variables. RESULTS: It was found that the overall prevalence of overweight was 15.6% of which 5.4% were obese, with maximum prevalence in boys attending urban private schools. The mean caloric intake in the study population with 24-hour dietary recall method was 1558.2 kilocalories (SD: 428 kilocalories). CONCLUSION: Overweight and obesity is a significant problem in school-going children. Higher socio-economic status continues to remain an important driver of this epidemic in the younger generation and affects demographic and dietary determinants of this problem.