Determinants of overweight and obesity in the middle school students of Pakdasht city, Tehran province

authors:

avatar Azam Mahmudi 1 , avatar Fatemeh Tajedini 1 , avatar Heshmatolah Ranjbar 2 , avatar Bijan Moghimi-Dehkordi 1 , *

Deputy of Health, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Health Network of Pakdasht, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences ,Tehran, Iran
Journal of Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences: Vol.18, issue 6; e74085
published online: September 29, 2014
article type: Original Article
received: April 07, 2014
accepted: August 26, 2014
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22110/jkums.v18i6.1475

how to cite: Mahmudi A, Tajedini F, Ranjbar H, Moghimi-Dehkordi B. Determinants of overweight and obesity in the middle school students of Pakdasht city, Tehran province. J Kermanshah Univ Med Sci. 2014;18(6):e74085. https://doi.org/10.22110/jkums.v18i6.1475.

Abstract

Background: In recent years, overweight and obesity have dramatically increased in many countries, and this trend is also visible among children. Childhood obesity will increase the chance of obesity and its associated diseases in adulthood. This study was aimed to investigate the prevalence and determinants of overweight and obesity in middle school students of Pakdasht.
Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 995 female students were selected from all middle schools of Pakdasht city, Tehran Province by stratified random sampling method. The required information on demographic variables, social determinants of health, type of entertainment, daily physical activity and eating habits was collected and Body Mass Index (BMI) was calculated.
Results: The mean age of students was 12.6 years. Finally, 9.1% and 15.1% of the students were obese and overweight, respectively. The results of univariate analysis showed that overweight and obesity were significantly associated with age, type of transportation to school, time of computer use, first-degree family history of obesity and daily physical activity. Overweight and obesity were also independently related to type of transportation to school, time of computer use, first-degree family history of obesity, birth weight and daily physical activity based on the results of multivariate analysis.
Conclusion: Considering the relatively high prevalence of overweight and obesity in middle school students, it is necessary to design and implement ongoing interventional and multidimensional programms in order to declin or eliminate the mentioned risk factors. 

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