Frequency of overweight/ obesity among school going children of Pakistan

Objective : To study the association of BMI and lipid profile with fatty liver diagnosed on abdominal Ultrasounds. Patients and Methods : A descriptive cross sectional study was carried out at PAF Hospital Islamabad & PAF Hospital Sargodha from 1st March 2014 to 30th September 2014. Two hundred seventy seven male children undergoing Central Medical Board for admission in PAF Public School Sargodha were enrolled in the study by non-probability convenience sampling between 11-14 years who were physically fit. Height and weight of each individual was measured & BMI was calculated as; BMI=weight (kg)/height (m)2. Participants were divided into 4 groups on basis of BMI. Results: Among 277 individuals mean age was 12.9 ±0.9 years. Age range was 11 to 14 years. Average height was 157 ± 6.3 cm and weight was 43±8kg, 21 candidates belonged to rural areas and 256 candidates belonged to urban areas. Maximum candidates 179(64%) belonged to Group1-BMI 25kg/(m) 2 . One candidate was found to be positive for HBsAg, no one had anti HCV or HIV, Fasting blood Glucose was within reference range for all participants, serum Cholesterol was raised only in 1 candidate and Urine Glucose/ Albumin were normal in all candidates. Conclusion: Frequency of overweight among healthy school going males children of Pakistan is 1% which is quite low. Key Words: Overweight, Obesity, BMI