Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity In Adolescents from Eastern Uttar Pradesh

Background: Obesity is major public health problem across the globe and its prevalence and severity is increasing day by day in adolescents due to increased use of multimedia devices and lifestyle changes in developing countries like ours.

Aims & Objectives: To estimate the prevalence of overweight and obesity in adolescents aged 10-19 years.

Methods: This observational study was done in Hind institute of medical sciences, Safedabad, Barabanki. All adolescents attending our outpatient in Department of Pediatrics and Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology from January to September 2020 were included after applying exclusion criteria and obtaining a written consent from the adolescent and parent/guardian. On a preformed Performa, we noted the Demographic data, History, examination, anthropometric measurement of weight and height. BMI was calculated as BMI=weight (kg)/height2(m2) and Centre for disease control and prevention percentile ranking was used to categorize overweight between 85th to <95th percentile and obese 95th percentile. Statistical analysis of data was done using Chi square test and SPSS software version 17.

Results: 415 adolescents were enrolled comprising 206 girls and 209 boys. Overall prevalence of overweight and obesity was 14.94 % of which 5.06% were obese and 9.88% were overweight. Among the girls, 16 (7.77%) were obese and 20 (9.71%) were overweight, while in boys, 5 (2.39%) were obese and 21 (10.05%) were overweight. Adolescent girls were significantly reported to be more obese and overweight (p value=0.044076).

Conclusions: Obesity among adolescents is escalating unrestrained and thus early education about healthy lifestyle strategies needs to be nurtured among adolescents