Childhood obesity is a serious medical condition; it has both immediate and long-term
effects on health and well-being. Objective: To estimate the prevalence and possible risk
factors of obesity among school children. Method: After obtaining an approval from the
concerned authority and the local research committee, a community based cross sectional
study was conducted in four primary schools in Assiut city. A multistage stratified cluster
random sampling technique was applied, in which 838 students were enrolled and
distributed among public and private schools of both boys and girls proportionate to
number of students in each type of education. Data was collected by semi-structured
questionnaire filled by the investigator himself including socio-demographic, nutritional
and lifestyle data, weight and height were taken by standardized method from which BMI
for age and sex percentiles were calculated for every student, overweight is defined as ≥
85th to 95th percentile, while obesity if ≥ 95th percentile. Results: Overweight and
obesity were observed in 14.2% of students (9.6% overweight and 4.6 % obese), while
underweight in41.5%. Stunting (low height for age) was observed in 12.8%. We found six
risk factors associated with obesity: Fast food consumption (Odds Ratio 5.6), eating
between meals (Odds Ratio 4.1), older age (Odds Ratio 3.5), irregular physical activity
(Odds Ratio 2.5), number of meals (Odds Ratio 2.1), and lack of eating vegetables (Odds
Ratio 1.6), while skipping breakfast meal was not found to be a risk factor. Conclusion:
Malnutrition either obesity or underweight are a prevalent nutritional public health
problem in primary school students in Menia Governorate.