Prevalence of Childhood Obesity in Anand District

Obesity has reached epidemic proportion globally. Outcome measures have been designed to measure childhood obesity, having positive and negative aspects of usage. Objectives: 1. To assess overall childhood obesity prevalence. 2. To compare obesity prevalence between urban and rural children. 3. To compare gender-wise obesity prevalence. Methodology: Cross-sectional evaluation of anthropometric parameters was done of 1034 school-children from 5 to 18 years of Anand district. Obesity evaluated using BMI (IOTF), Waist circumference (WC), Waist-to-Height ratio (WHtR). Result: Overall prevalence was 19.9%. Compared to rural population 14.2% prevalence, urban population had 23.8%. Prevalence in boys was 20.8% and in girls was 19.9%. WC was more sensitive and specific than WHtR, as compared against BMI. Conclusion: Present study documents prevalence of obesity as 20%. Urban children and boys are at higher obesity spectrum. WC is more suitable as an outcome measure to diagnose obesity.