International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health | February 2018 | Vol 5 | Issue 2 Page 749 International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health Dasappa H et al. Int J Community Med Public Health. 2018 Feb;5(2):749-753 http://www.ijcmph.com pISSN 2394-6032 | eISSN 2394-6040 Original Research Article Prevalence, risk factors and attitude of parents towards childhood obesity among school children in Bangalore city Hemavathi Dasappa 1 *, Farah Naaz Fathima 2 , Krithika Ganesh 3 , Shankar Prasad 4 INTRODUCTION Childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents in the past 30 years. 1,2 Overweight and obesity are the result of ―caloric imbalance‖—too few calories expended for the amount of calories consumed—and are affected by various genetic, behavioral, and environmental factors. 3,4 Childhood obesity has both immediate and long-term effects on health and well-being. Children and adolescents who are obese are at greater risk for bone and joint problems, sleep apnea, and social and psychological problems such as stigmatization and poor self-esteem. 3,4 Indian data regarding current trends in childhood obesity are emerging. In a recent systematic review article in which the prevalence data from 52 studies conducted in 16 of the 28 States in India was analyzed, the median value for the combined prevalence of childhood and adolescent obesity showed that it was higher in north, compared to south India. The pooled data after 2010 estimated a combined prevalence of 19.3 per cent of childhood overweight and obesity which was a ABSTRACT Background: Aim of the study was to determine the prevalence, risk factor attitude of parents towards obesity and overweight among the school children between the age group of 6-13 years. Methods: A structured questionnaire was filled by the parents and weight and height was measured by school nurse in a private school in Bangalore city. Results: Prevalence of overweight was 13.20% and obesity was 17.13%. Birth weight and sport was strongly associated with the prevalence. Sports protect the child from the overweight and obesity. Parent’s perception about their child’s BMI status was good. Parent’s attitude of having meal with their child and their estimation of child’s physical activity was protective and the attitude of controlling diet of the child was a risk factor for overweight and obesity. Though the parents were able to estimate their child as overweight and obese they were not willing for further advice. Conclusions: Prevalence of overweight and obesity is increasing. Higher birth weights, parental attitude of controlling child’s diet are the potential risk factors. Involvement in sports, parental attitude of having food with child and awareness about their physical activity are protective. Keywords: Prevalence, Overweight, Obese, Risk factors, Attitude 1 Department of Geriatric Medicine, Bangalore Medical College, Bangalore, Karnataka, India 2 Department of Community Medicine, St John’s Medical College, Bangalore, Karnataka, India 3 Department of Family Medicine, Rangadorai Hospital, Bangalore, Karnataka, India 4 Department of Medicine, St Philomena’s Hospital, Bangalore, Karnataka, India Received: 12 December 2017 Accepted: 09 January 2018 *Correspondence: Dr. Hemavathi Dasappa, E-mail: hema.dkp@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/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20180262