| dc.description.abstract | Introduction:
Obesity among children has become an important issue in public health worldwide. In 2010, a report by the World Health Organization (WHO estimated that globally 42 million children under the age of five were overweight. Obesity poses an increased risk to several medical and psychosocial problems. Obese children are more likely to have hypertension and high cholesterol which poses a high risk for cardiovascular diseases.
Objective:
To determine the factors associated with prevalence of obesity among school children of 4-12 years in Kawempe division Method: A crossectional study was carried out in Kawempe division, Kampala, qualitative data collection was employed using a questionnaire and 246 households were randomly selected. Collected data was analyzed using SPSS and entered using Epi-data, word and Microsoft excel software.
Results:
My results show that the prevalence of overweight and obesity among school children in Kawempe division is 17.1% and 24.4% respectively. The observed prevalence rates are similar to those in high income countries, but higher than those in middle and low income countries(1)(2). The high prevalence of obesity and overweight could be higher compared to findings in other low and middle income countries as a result of the selected study population.
Conclusion:
In the study, Various factors were considered, among them age of children, history of exercise, family history of overweight and amount of pocket money given to the child quality all positively influenced the prevalence of obesity amongst children in Kawempe division except; religion, sex, frequency of feeding the child, knowledge about dangers of obesity, source of health information and self-medication which did not have significant association with obesity
Recommendation:
In light of the research findings, prevalence of obesity in Uganda in general and among children 4-12 years of age in Kawempe division in particular is affected by various factors. In order to enhance the reduction in the prevalence of obesity/overweight amongst children of age 4-12 years, I recommend that the government of Uganda through the Ministry of Health to revise and support sensitizations about obesity, its prevalence, prevention and control amongst children at both household and community level. | en_US |
