Prevalence and Determinants of Childhood Obesity in Dhaka City

Background: Obesity amongst the children is increasing worldwide at an alarming rate in both developed and developing countries. Obese children are at higher risk of developing coronary heart disease, non-insulin dependent diabetes, respiratory disease etc. Methods: A case-control study, preceded by a cross sectional survey was conducted, aimed to estimate the prevalence rate and to identify the factors associated with the development of childhood obesity in Dhaka city. A multi stage probability proportionate to size (PPS) cluster sampling method was used to obtain the sample. To identify the obese children, a pre-tested questionnaire was used to collect data on age, weight and height among the randomly selected 5000 children of 2-10 years age group from 12 government primary and 23 private elementary schools, 4 hospitals, 8 health centres and 12 immunisation centres (on National Immunisation Days) from all the 12 thanas (civil administrative sub-districts) of Dhaka city. Survey included a medical history and physical examination to assess the eligibility of the subjects for the study. Results: Of 5000 children, 380 (7.6%) were identified as obese using the criterion of weight for height >120% as a cut-off point. Obesity was positively correlated with the increase of age in both sexes (r = 0.76). Of all obese children, 216 (56.8%) were boys and 164 (43.2%) were girls. Prevalence of obesity was significantly higher among the boys than girls (p=0.007). The study was conducted among the 220 cases of 380 obese children (Wt/Ht> 120%) and 220 randomly selected controls, matching age and sex, using a semi-structured questionnaire for identifying the factors associated with the development of childhood obesity. Information also collected from parents of both cases and controls. Family income (p