The Prevalence of Obesity and Overweight among Children from Lower Socioeconomic Status

Abstract

Obesity relays a threatening disease that born of hyper nutrition and unbalanced nutrition in nowadays communities. In this study it is aimed to determine the prevalence of overweight and obesity among children come from lower socioeconomic classes in Ankara, Turkey, Totally, 891 students (446 female, 445 male) aged and between 7-14 years from lower socieconomic classes were measured anthropometrically and their the body mass Indices were calculated. Obesity and overweight ratios were assessed using try the reference values obtained from NHANES I and II (National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey) conducted in US children. The children who take place of 85-94.9th percentile of the reference data were accepted to be "overweight", and the ones take place in the 95th percentile and over accepted as "obese". Our analyses showed that 7.69% of boys and 3.82% of girls were overweight and 1.49% of boys and 2.29% of girls were obese. The ratios of obesity and overweight are lower than those of other studies Which were conducted in lower socieconomic status. As a conclusion, present study indicated that obesity is not a common problem among lower socioeconomic classes in our country,