TITLE:
Overweight and obesity among public and private primary school children in Nairobi, Kenya
AUTHORS:
Florence Kyallo, Anselimo Makokha, Alice Mboganie Mwangi
KEYWORDS:
Obesity; Overweight; School Children; Kenya
JOURNAL NAME:
Health,
Vol.5 No.8C,
August
23,
2013
ABSTRACT: Obesity is on the
rise in developing countries, especially in urban areas. In this study, a
cross-sectional study was conducted in two divisions in Nairobi province to
determine the prevalence of and some risk factors associated with overweight
and obesity among school children in Nairobi, Kenya. It involved 344 school
children aged 9-14 years drawn from four randomly selected public and private
primary schools. Weight and height were measured and body mass index was calculated.
Nutrition status was determined using the World Health Organization age and
gender specific BMI-for-age Z-scores (BAZ). The chi-square test was used to
determine the relationship between overweight/obesity and selected socio-demographic
characteristics. Complete anthropometric measurements were available for 321
children. Prevalence of combined overweight and obesity (BAZ > +1SD) was
19.0%, with prevalence being higher among girls (21.0%) than boys (16.9%) (p = 0.632). The prevalence among
children in private schools was significantly higher (29.0%) than among those
in public schools (11.5%) (p = 0.000).
In addition, being a single child (p =
0.020), birth order (p = 0.017),
mother’s occupation (p = 0.023) and
type of residence (p = 0.028) were
positively associated with overweight/obesity. The prevalence of overweight/obesity
determined in this study is high and is a public health concern, with girls
particularly at risk of becoming overweight.