Abstrait

A Study on Physical Activity and Obesity amongst Secondary School Children.

Sudeepa Dhanpal, Pavithra MB, and Pruthvish S

The combination of inactivity and surplus calories contributes to abnormal blood lipids, elevated Blood pressure, Obesity and Diabetes. To find out the proportion of obesity and overweight among school children and to find the level of physical activity. This study was conducted among the selected schools of Bangalore city, 1203 high school students were interviewed of which 600 students were from government schools another 603 were from private schools. Levels of physical activity and Body mass index was measured Adequate physical activity was seen among 445(37%) of the study subjects. Adequate level of physical activity found among 8, 9 and 10 standards are 165(41.4%), 160(41%) and 120(29%) respectively. The difference of physical activity observed was found to be statistically highly significant (P < 0.001). The proportion of overweight and obesity among the study subjects was 55(4.6%) and 25(2.1%) respectively. Among the overweight subjects 30(54.5%) were females and 25(45.5%) were males. Obesity was seen among 19(76%) of males and 6(24%) of females. The observed difference is statistically significant (P = 0.03). Implementing State educational policies that seek to promote the physical well-being of children is the need of the hour.