The association between eating habits and overweight in 10-15 year old school children in the North West Province

Abstract

The prevalence of obesity among children and adolescents worldwide appears to be increasing. There are many factors which contribute to the development of overweight and obesity. It is believed that bad eating habits is one of the factors. Investigators believe that eating habits begin in childhood and remain almost unchanged for the rest of a person's life (Roma-Giannikou et al., 1997). There is a lack of information on the association between eating habits and measures of overweight and obesity. The aim of this study was to assess the association between eating habits and measures of overweight in 10-15 year old school children in the North West Province in a cross sectional study. THUSABANA (Transition and Health during Urbanization in South Africa in children) is a follow-up study of the THU SA project (Transition and Health during Urbanization in South Africa). Schools were selected randomly from a list of schools obtained from North West Department of Education in the North West Province of South Africa. The measurements were done on a random sample of children from the selected schools during school hours. Socio-demographic, eating habits and anthropometric data were obtained by an interviewer administering validated questionnaire. Body weight, height and triceps skin-folds thicknesses were measured using standard methods. Body mass index was calculated. Results showed that most children were normal weight (85.2%), 12.2% were overweight and only a small percentage of children were obese (2.6%) when using BM I-for-age cutoff points. When triceps skin-fold cut-off points were used, nearly the same results were observed, only 5.4% of children were obese and the rest were normal weight (94.6%). Few children in this study omitted breakfast. A higher percentage of obese than non-obese children did not eat breakfast. The results further showed that a higher percentage of non-obese children had a tendency not to take a lunchbox to school when using BMI cut-off points. Similar practices were seen for both non-obese and obese children when using triceps skin-folds cut-off points, which means there is no association between taking a lunchbox to school and triceps skin-folds measures. Both non-obese and obese children bought food from tuck-shops and a greater percentage of obese children reported to consume an afternoon snack than non-obese children. Most of the non-obese and obese children did not consume a late night snack, while a television snack was consumed by both obese and non-obese children. The results also showed a small percentage of children who were on a special diet to lose weight, but most of the children did not follow any special diet. The findings that most children in this study were normal weight and a small percentage of children were obese, we cannot conclude that eating habits contribute to the development of obesity. However consumption of television snack and buying from the tuck-shops or vendors which mostly sell foods high in saturated fat, sugar and refined food may have significant implications for obesity development. Considering the influence of television on children's eating habits, early education efforts on prudent diet and physical activity may be necessary in helping develop good eating habits and leading a healthy lifestyle.