Background: Childhood obesity is one of the most serious public health challenges of the 21st century. The problem is global and is steadily affecting many low- and middle-income countries, particularly in urban settings. The prevalence has increased at an alarming rate. Globally, in 2010 the number of overweight children under the age of five is estimated to be over 42 million. Close to 35 million of these are living in developing countries.
Objectives: The aim of this prospective study to find out if there is any abnormalities in thyroid function in simple obese children and adolescence or not.
Patient and method: This prospective randomized case- control study is carried out on a 60 children with simple obesity selected from Al-Hussen University Hospital including f38 obese children (55.6%) with a BMI of more than 95th percentile for age and sex, and 22 children (44.4%) with a BMI between (15th percentile-85th percentile) for age and sex serving as controls. group of the sixthly children, 27 were males (45.6%) and 33 were females (54.4%). The mean age of control and obese children, was 8.40 ± 1.32, and 8.28 ± 1.47 years respectively.
Conclusion: Obesity is associated with increased TSH levels breastfeeding is very important as children who did not receive breast milk are at great risk of obesity, TV watching may be a contributing factor in the development of obesity, unhealthy eating habits are one of the risk factors of obesity, elevated blood pressure is not uncommon in obese children even in young age.