International Journal of Research in Medical Sciences | November 2015 | Vol 3 | Issue 11 Page 3032 International Journal of Research in Medical Sciences Katkuri S et al. Int J Res Med Sci. 2015 Nov;3(11):3032-3036 www.msjonline.org pISSN 2320-6071 | eISSN 2320-6012 Research Article A study of prevalence of obesity and its correlates among government and private school children in Hyderabad: a comparative study Sushma Katkuri 1 , Yashwant A.M. 2 , Prashant R. Kokiwar 3 *, Sridevi Kotina 4 , Avasarla A. Kameswar Rao 5 , Pooja Chauhan 6 INTRODUCTION The health of children and youth is of fundamental importance. Over one-fifth of our population comprises of children aged 5-14 years that is, the group covering primary and secondary education. As today’s children are the citizens of tomorrow’s world, their survival, protection, and development are the prerequisite for the future development of humanity. Without ensuring optimal child growth and development, efforts to accelerate economic development significantly will be unsuccessful. 1 Today as the standards of living continue to rise, weight gain and obesity are posing a great threat to health of the world. Obesity is a chronic disease, prevalent in both developed and developing countries. In many developing countries including India, it co exists with under nutrition. This constitutes a double burden for these countries. The problem of obesity is not only confined in adults but also among children and adolescents. 2 Childhood obesity is associated with a higher chance of obesity, premature death and disability in adulthood. But in addition to increased future risks, obese children ABSTRACT Background: Obesity has reached epidemic proportions in India in the 21st Century, affecting 5% of the country’s population. Childhood obesity is an emerging problem in urban Indian children and increase in childhood overweight and obesity may be a major contributor to adult obesity epidemic. Hence present study has been planned with the objective to study and compare the prevalence of obesity in government and private schools and also to study the risk factors associated with obesity. Methods: An institution based cross sectional study was carried out among 718 school children of randomly selected government and private schools of Hyderabad city. Students were enquired about their physical activity and dietary habits as per the questionnaire. Anthropometry measurements like height and weight were recorded for each student. Data was analyzed using appropriate statistical tests. Results: Prevalence of obesity was found to be 21.09% among private school children and 19% in government school children. Physical activity factors like conveyance to school and less frequency of outdoor games were significantly associated with obesity. Diet related determinants like intake of soft drinks, sweets, pizza, fruits were found to be associated with obesity. Conclusions: It can be concluded that the prevalence of obesity in schools of Hyderabad is very high and it is positively associated with inappropriate exercise and improper dietary practices. Keywords: Prevalence, Obesity, School children 1,4 Associate Professor, 2,6 Assistant Professor, 3 Professor & HOD, 5 Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Malla Reddy Institute of Medical Sciences, Suraram, Hyderabad, Telangana, India Received: 21 September 2015 Accepted: 05 October 2015 *Correspondence: Prashant R. Kokiwar, E-mail: kokiwar@gmail.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2320-6012.ijrms20150918