Abstract

INTRODUCTION:- In India, little attention has been paid to childhood obesity, so present study is done to emphasize factors to curb it like modification of dietary pattern and importance of physical activity so as to prevent the childhoodonset of adult diseases. AIMS & OBJECTIVES:- 1. To Study the prevalence of obesity and overweight in children in a facility based setup. 2. To find relationship of obesity and overweight to physical activity, dietary pattern, psychological factors, health care seeking behavior, serum cholesterol levels. DESIGN:- Prospective and Descriptive study. SETTING:- Subharti Hospital, Meerut From Oct 2012 to Oct 2013. METHOD & SUBJECTS:- 6-18 years children from opd and ward with complaints of overweight or BMI more than 25kg/m2 were recruited. A Pretested questionnaire recorded weight, height, BMI, Serum cholesterol psychological factors. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: - The prevalence of over-weight and obesity was 0.05% and 0.28% respectively. 58% obese children did less physical activity,68% obese and overweight children consumed higher calorie as compared to overweight and normal weight children.56% of overweight and obese children showed health care seeking activity. Relationship with Serum Cholesterol levels showed only 14% of them were above the mean percentile (75%) and 68% suffered from low self esteem because of being overweight.