IOSR Journal of Pharmacy and Biological Sciences (IOSR-JPBS) e-ISSN: 2278-3008, p-ISSN:2319-7676. Volume 10, Issue 3 Ver. III (May - Jun. 2015), PP 17-22 www.iosrjournals.org DOI: 10.9790/3008-10331722 ww.iosrjournals.org 17 | Page Obesity, Motor Quality and Physiological Developement Among Urban Preadolescent Children From Midnapore, India Prithwiraj Mukherjee, Supriya Kumar Misra, Mouli Choudhury, Chandradipa Ghosh. Department of Human Physiology with Community Health, Vidyasagar University, Midnapore-721102, West Bengal, India. Abstract: In present time obesity has attained a major focus of research as one of the nutritional problems in developed and developing countries. In India this number is increasing day by day due to changing life style in all age group. In this study the prevalence of overweight and obesity were estimated from 105 school going Bengali preadolescent children from middle income-group urban families of Midnapore town, West Bengal, India. They were divided into control, overweight and obese group of each sex according to the respective BMI percentile value. Anthropometric variables, physiological variables, and several motor quality variables were measured. Result obtained revealed that the prevalence of obesity was 18.8% among boys and 23% among girls. The obese group showed increased value of anthropometric parameters. There were significant differences of all of the variables in between control, overweight and obese girls and boys except hand grip strength of both sexes and standing long jump of boys. Product moment correlation showed all variables were significantly correlating with BMI and % of fat. Obese girls were showing higher values of anthropometric parameters and lower values of physiological and motor parameters in comparison with obese boys. Thus this developing urban community is in a growing concern for their growing proportion of obese individual as they are under a substantial handicap in physical performance. Keywords: Obesity, BMI, Motor Quality, Respiratory Fitness I. Introduction Accumulation of excess fat in the body is termed as obesity. Although a number of factors contributing to the development of obesity are well established, the etiology of obesity is not exactly clear (Tucker et al. 1997). Watanabe et al. (1994) observed obesity to a large extent as the result of physical inactivity with the maintenance of an abundant and frequently high fat diet. Incidences of childhood obesity have been increasing since 1980s (Han et al. 2010).The children in developing countries suffering from double forms of malnutrition. Urban children are afflicted with problems of over-nutrition while rural and slam children suffer from effects of under nutrition (Chatterjee et al. 2002). According to Bessesen (2008), 10% of children worldwide are either overweight or obese. 50-80% of obese preadolescent children will grow up to become obese adults (Styne et al. 2001). Childhood obesity is associated with several risk factors for the development of heart diseases and other chronic problems including hyperlipidemia, hyperinsulinemia, hypertension and early atherosclerosis (Berenson et al. 1993; 1998, Cole et al. 2000). The correlation of childhood obesity to adulthood diseases is of major concern (Chatterjee et al. 2006) as it because harder to treat obesity in adults than in children (Park et al. 2005). So effective prevention of adult diseases due to obesity will require the prevention and management of childhood obesity (WHO, 2000). Selected body measurements like stature, mass, various skinfold thicknesses and other body dimensional measurements have globally been accepted as sensitive indicators of growth progress and nutritional status of children and the growing population.(Pakrasi et al. 1986; Chatterjee et al. 1993) In order to develop an internationally acceptable definition of obesity, Cole et al .(2000) scientifically specified cut-off points of BMI, a ratio of body mass and stature which are the two most easily measurable parameters, for categorizing children as obese in an age-wise pattern. As excessive body weight affects body geometry and increases the mass of different body segments, there is obstruction in different physiological, aerobic and motor response in those over weight and obese children in same physiological conditions. This changing trend in body weights in children is important for public health policy. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of obesity in a representative sample of urban preadolescent school going children from the Midnapore town, West Bengal, India. The other objective was to correlate several physiological, aerobic and motor quality variables of obese among non obese subjects.