The Relationship between Lifestyle Pattern and Body Mass Index (BMI) in Elementary School Girls in Tabriz, 2010.

Abstract

Abstract: Background: Nowadays the rise in the prevalence of overweight and obesity (OW/OB) in children is one of the most alarming public health issues facing the world. Childhood obesity are underlying the risk of obesity and obesity in adulthood and its complications. Various studies have indicated there is a direct relationship between lifestyle and obesity. Therefore, the present study has been investigated to determine the relationship between lifestyle pattern and body mass index in elementary school girls in Tabriz. Methods: This is a descriptive study which is done in Tabriz in 2010 on 1500 students from 7-11 years old were selected through a multistage stratified random sampling. In the first step, height and weight of children were measured by standard methods for determination of body mass index (BMI). Based on CDC criteria, the students were divided into four following categories: below the 5th percentile as "underweight", 5-58 percentile as "normal weight", 85-95 percentile as "overweight" and above the 95th percentile as "obese". Children lifestyle includes of four sections of physical activity, Leisure activity, diet behaviors and sleep pattern. The other demographic data were gathered by obtaining parental consent and filling the research questionnaires. Statistical analysis was done by SPSS16 comparing the means by using Kruskall –Wallis tests, Mann –Whitney and the Spearman correlation coefficient test, chi –square test was used to examine the relationship between BMI and lifestyle pattern. Results: The results of the study showed that 73 percent of elementary school girls were normal weight, 12.5% were overweight, 5.8% obese and 8.6% underweight. There was a significant relationship (p=0.045), between the total grade physical activity and BMI. Moreover, analysis of leisure activity section showed that there was a significant relationship (p=0.04), between the hours of watching television and BMI among the subjects, while there was no relationship between BMI and the number of hours that they play computer games, and hour that they study or read books. Also there was no significant relationship. Between total grade of diet behaviors and BMI. Finally, about the sleeping pattern of subjects, there was a significant relationship between the time of sleeping and also time duration of taking sleep in afternoon (p=0.028 and p=0.028 and p=0.3 respectively). It found no correlation between total grade of lifestyle pattern and BMI. Conclusion: Although this study could not clearly show the correlation between BMI and lifestyle pattern, but for in most of cases, the average differences between the obesity and overweight groups were significant so there is still a need to pay attention to the elementary student's lifestyles and prevention of childhood obesity. To achieve this goal, there is a need for designing more wide and precise studies which can cover the other affective environmental factors in lifestyle pattern.