TITLE:
Is There a Correlation between Body Weight and Awareness of Healthy Life Style Components in Children?
AUTHORS:
Asma Deeb, Shaker Suliman, Mary Tomy, Hana Yousef, Layla Abdel Rahman, Shifa Saleh, Samia Mahmoud, Mariette Akle, Nico Nagelkerke
KEYWORDS:
Obesity, Exercise, Diet, Children, Overweight
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Pediatrics,
Vol.5 No.1,
March
16,
2015
ABSTRACT: Background: Incidence of obesity in
children is increasing worldwide. Healthy eating and exercise are the major
components of a healthy life style in the community. Objective: we aim to
assess the knowledge of healthy eating and exercise in childrenof varying weightand to explore the correlation between
knowledge and bodyweight. Method: School children are invited to fill in a 2
questions quiz about healthy life style.BMI
is calculated and children are classified into obese, overweight, normal and
underweight. Answers are scored and results compared for different categories
of the BMI. Results: 445 children participated. Age range (mean) was 7 - 13
(10) years. 67 were obese, 59 overweight, 237 normal weight and 34 were
underweight. In the food question, 22%, 20%, 23% 15% of obese, overweight, underweight
and normal weight children respectively gave wrong answers compared to 17.5%,
15% and 14.7%, 13.3% for the exercise question. Neither of the results was
statistically significant. Boys are more knowledgeable about exercise than
girls (P = 0.03). Conclusion: There is no difference in the level of knowledge
about healthy eating and exercise among children with varying body weights.
Tackling children behavior and attitude towards food and exercise is as
important as improving their knowledge.