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Abstract

Background: Childhood obesity is associated with serious health problems particularly an increasing incidence of NIDDM among children. Objective: To measure the prevalence of childhood obesity among school children age (8-14 years old) and to determine the school preventive measures to fight against obesity. Methodology: An institutional based cross-sectional study was conducted among school children of age (8-14) years in six schools in Khartoum state, Sudan. A total of 228 pupils (114 males and 114 females) were selected from six basic public schools using cluster random sampling. Anthropometric measurements were recorded for each child according to WHO protocols. Scientific questionnaire was designed to collect information about socio-economic status of families. Data were analyzed using SPSS; WHO AnthroPlus was used to obtain the Z-score (BMI for age and sex) in order to determine the nutritional state for each child. An observation checklist was used to determine the school preventive measures against obesity; it includes information about types of snacks sold in the school, types of activities the children perform while they are in the school. Result: The prevalence of childhood overweight was 9.6%; obesity was 10.5%; underweight was 25% and the normal weight was 50.9%. There was a positive correlation between pocket money (pound per day) and the childhood overweight and obesity. There was no association between age, gender, mother work, mother education and childhood obesity. Only two schools out of six do not allow soft drinks to be sold in their food canteens. These two schools showed the least mean BMI (18:18.3) in comparison with the mean BMI of the other four schools (18.5, 19.2, 19.4 and 19.9). Conclusion & Recommendation: The study revealed a high prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity and the overall school�s preventive measures against obesity were found to be inadequate for marinating appropriate physical environment and good nutritional behavior for the pupils. So, there is a need to implement a school preventive program to fight against this problem.

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