RESUMEN
Background: Overweight in schools is a worrisome public health problem because they increase medium and long term risks of morbidity and mortality especially with an increased risk of persistence of obesity in adulthood
Aim: To estimate the prevalence of overweight among school children and to identify its associated risk factors
Methods: this is a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted among school students aged less than 18 years in the area of "Hazoua" [Tozeur]. The references of BMI used for overweight and obesity are those of IOTF. The French BMI references are used to establish the prevalence of underweight. Data entry and analysis was performed using SPSS 20
Results: Our sample included 445 students. The average BMI was 18.73 +/- 3.4 kg/m2. The prevalence of Underweight was 9.7%, while overweight and obesity have been reported among 6.7% of students. Overweight was significantly associated to gender and the practice of sport outside school
Conclusion: Obesity in schools in the community of Hazoua is now lower than that reported in other studies. In contrast, we detected a problem of underweight, which deserves as much attention. Intervention programs should be established and whose objectives are to improve students' skills in terms of eating behavior and physical activity, these actions require collaboration at all levels