ABSTRACT

The study assessed the prevalence of overweight and obesity of children aged 6 -12 years living in rural communities of Umuahia South Local Government Area of Abia State, Nigeria. A  random sampling technique was used in selecting 5 schools and 180 children used for the study.  One hundred and eighty subjects each were selected randomly from the rural schools, respectively. This was done by picking 36 subjects comprising of boys and girls within the ages 6-12 years from each of the 5 schools, by way of balloting without replacement. A structured questionnaire was used to collect information on the personal data, family background, parents’ socio-demographic status, physical activity pattern of the family and monthly income range of the parents. Anthropometric measurements of weight, height and triceps were done in the rural schools, respectively. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 15 was used to analyze the data. Information from the questionnaires, weight was analyzed using frequencies and percentages and categorized using World Health Organization (WHO) anthro software. Comparison was done using chi square test for categorized variables while ANOVA was used to analyze continuous variables. Anthropometric result showed that prevalence of childhood stunting, wasting, overweight and obesity among the primary school children studied Umuahia South Local Government Area Abia State was 42.8%, 6.7%, 23.9% and 15.0% respectively. Obesity was more among the female children (13.5%) than in the males (16.5%) and overweight was more among the male children (17.5%) relative to the females (6.4%). Children whose parents monthly income was N50,000 and above showed higher prevalence of overweight and obesity than those whose parents monthly income was less than N18,000 respectively. A lower number of rural children (1.7%) view television for more than two hours per day.The body mass index (BMI) distribution of the children  showed15.0% were obese and 23.9% were overweight. Conclusive evidence has shown that socio economic, nutrition status of children had a negative impact on the obese children in terms of weight loss.